SIR:-I have the honor herewith to deliver the Biennial Reports of the Trustees, Superintendent, and Treasurer of the Tennessee Hospital for the Insane for the term from January 1, 1877, to December 19, 1878, and invite your consideration thereto, and request their transmission to the General Assembly. H. B. BUCKNER, President Board of Trustees. REPORT OF THE BOARD OF To the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee : In pursuance of the requirements of the Statutes, the undersigned herewith present the usual biennial Report of the history and condition of the charitable institution of the State, of which they constitute the Board of Trustees. They also submit the detailed Report of the Super intendent, from January 1, 1877, to December 19, 1878, exhibiting its operations for that period, and also the Report of the Treasurer, showing the receipts and expenditures for the same period. The Reports in the earlier years of the existence of this Hospital being out of print, it has been deemed proper, for your information and that of the citizens at large, all of whom are interested in the character and work of this noble charity, to briefly recount the history of its foundation and growth, to describe its buildings and exterior equipments, and review its useful career in the remedial and custodial care of the insane of the State. BUILDINGS. As early as the year 1830, the attention of the General Assembly was called to the necessity of an institution of this kind, and appropriations' were made therefor. In a few years thereafter, a commodious stone structure of moderate capacity was erected in the immediate suburbs of the city of Nashville, which served as the State Lunatic Asylum, until the opening of this institution, March 1, 1852. In the progress of time and with the increase of population, that Institution was found not only too small to accommodate the growing needs of the insane population, but, in its construction, it was not adapted for the proper curative management of those committed to its care, or such a system as conduced to the health, comfort and security of its inmates. During the session of the General Assembly of 1847-8, it was visited and addressed by a memorial from Miss D. L. Dix—a lady whose fame as a philanthropist in behalf of the unfortunate insane is as wide as the region of civilization on both continents which have been blessed by her disinterested labors, and who still survives to merit the thanks of thousands whose condition she has ameliorated-and under her touching and forcible appeals, the Act was passed which organized the "Tennessee Hospital for the Insane," and which, by subsequent judicious and liberal aid from the State, has culminated in the Institution which early acquired and still maintains a first rank among similar charities in this country. Under that Act, Gov. Neill S. Brown, then at the head of the State Government, appointed Alexander Allison, Lucius J. Polk, Andrew Ewing, Thomas T. Player, John J. White, Henry S. Frazier, Daniel S. Donelson, J. J. B. Southall, and Samuel D. Morgan, Commissioners to purchase a site and erect the Hospital. These were of the most prominent citizens of the State then living-all of whom have passed away except the venerable Samuel D. Morgan, of the city of Nashville. This Board, in 1848, purchased a beautiful farm site six and a half miles southeasterly from Nashville, on the McAdamized turnpike leading to Murfreesboro, containing two hundred and fifty-five acres, and having appointed Adolphus Heiman Architect, and Dr. John S. Young Superintendent of Construction, adopted a plan slightly modified from that of the Butler Hospital for the Insane, at Providence, Rhode Island, which was built under the direction and experienced eye of the distinguished Dr. Luther V. Bell-one of the most eminent men who has adorned the specialty in America. This building, with the extensions made under Act of the General Assembly of 1870, is four hundred and seven feet in frontage from east to west, and is of the castellated order of architecture. The central or administrative building is four stories in height-the lower story being devoted to the necessary offices, the second to the private apartments of the Superintendent and family, the third to apartments for officers, and the fourth to the chapel or lecture room. This portion of the structure is ninety-eight feet in breadth by forty-five in depth. The body of each wing is three stories high, but their extremities in the new extensions |