Letter [soliciting pecuniary aid] : Retreat for the Insane ; Hartford, July 20th, 1860 / [signed] J. S. Butler.

  • Institute of Living.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter [soliciting pecuniary aid] : Retreat for the Insane ; Hartford, July 20th, 1860 / [signed] J. S. Butler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    1/4
    ttuii fax ilu lisiiw Sffn/fia/, ^//y- SOd, f$6o. My Dear Sir:— Permit mo to address you for the purpose of soliciting pecuniary aid for the Institution over which I have the honor to preside. Let me call your attention briefly to some considerations which have urged me to a step clearly no part of my official duty to the 220 patients under my charge, and the additional care and labor of which might easily and perhaps reasonably have been avoided by me. But eloquent and touching appeals have been made to me daily for years by these patients, which I can no longer resist, and to which I felt compelled to make an effort to respond. Not a visit do I make to our Wards that I do not pass by some sorrowful face which I could not make bright and happy; some torpid mind which I could not cheer and animate, did I possess some needed additional appliances of treatment. These are clearly demanded by the necessities of the Insane; they arc possessed by some other Institutions more liberally endowed than our own, and no Institution can lie considered complete without them. In some of my Annual Reports I have gone more at large into this subject, and to them I would refer for details. What we need and what I ask for, are additional means of providing amusement, recreation and employment for all our patients, but especially for that large class who arc within the range of recovery or improvement. The greatest evil of all Lunatic Asylums is the monotony of the patients' life; their greatest necessity is the relief of this monotony. The means of relief which I am now anxious to obtain, and which will afford us greater aid than any other, and for which I ask your assistance, are— 1st. A Conservatory for Flowers, &c. It is proposed to build tins from 75 to 100 feet in length, witli a double spanned roof of ghiss. This will afford a pleasant daily promenade lor our patients, especially during those stormy and inclement days which form so large a portion of our New England year, and when out-of-door exercises for invalids is impossible. The care and culture of the plants will afford daily occupation of the most useful and grateful kind for our female patients. The Conservatory will also enable us to decorate our rooms, especially those of the sick and desponding, with flowers. 2d. A Bowltng Alley, with room for a Bagatelle Board, and for Calisthenic Exercises, &C, FOR THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF OUR LADIES. These popular and useful1 recreations will be of incalculable benefit. Both the Conserv- atory and the Bowling Alley, while affording needful and healthy exercise, of which very many will gladly avail themselves, will serve most effectually to relieve the n tony of their Halls, by giving our ladies a pleasant resort during the many stormy days, especially of the winter season.