The edifice contains also the apartments for the warden and assistants, the reception and reading rooms, which are as quiet as if no lunatic were on the premises. A building for the more violent of the male sex was erected in 1830, at some distance to the north-west of the main edifice, and in 1837 another for females was added, situated in an opposite direction from the main building. These were originally sixty by forty feet, three stories high, constructed of brick, but were in 1854 much enlarged and improved. The original cost of the property somewhat exceeded $250,000. The laundry is a separate building, seventy-five by forty feet, and three stories high. The washing is performed with machinery in the lower story, the second floor contains drying, ironing, and store rooms, and the third the dormitories for the domestics. The Asylum is capable of accommodating without undue crowding, which is never resorted to, about one hundred and seventy inmates, and is always full. The patients are classified and separated according to the form their mental ailments have assumed, whether monomania, mania, dementia, idiotism, or delirium à potu. Harsh treatment is never resorted to, and the appearance of the largest liberty is granted all except the most violent. The general treatment is arranged so as to recover from physical disease when necessary, and restore mental self-control by dissolving all morbid associations.

A part of the grounds is devoted to gardening, and a great variety of trees and ornamental shrubbery adorn the premises, making them a terrestrial paradise during the sultry season. The buildings are surrounded with separate and appropriate yards, where the patients enjoy prolonged out-door recreation during pleasant weather, without destroying the distinctions established in their medical classification. Religious services are conducted every Sabbath by the chaplain, and are attended by many of the patients. The warden and matron appointed by the "governors" have charge of the buildings, supplies, kitchen, servants, etc. The superior officer of the Asylum is, however, the resident physician, who is required to be a married man, reside on the premises, give his undivided attention to the Institution, and who is solely responsible for the treatment of the patients. Patients are received from any part of the State, on such conditions as can be agreed upon, from eight to thirty dollars per week being required, according to their circumstances, three months' board being required in advance. The expense of conducting the Institution the last year was $108,736, and the receipts from the patients $107,852. The laying out of the Boulevard, which has become the great pleasure drive of the island, passing within a hundred and twenty feet of the Men's Lodge, where the most disturbed are domiciled, has laid upon the society the necessity of removing the Asylum to a more retired location. The experienced physician, D. Tilten Brown, who has been connected with the establishment since 1852, has recommended that the new Institution be located where it can remain undisturbed by any large settlement for at least fifty years; that such ample grounds be secured that fifty acres may be appropriated for the exercise of each sex, leaving sufficient for gardening and farming purposes, and a still further extension for long walks and drives on the asylum property alone. He further recommended that the premises be not only supplied with an abundance of good water, but be as beautiful in their location and surroundings as could be obtained. The "governors" have recently purchased nearly three hundred acres of land at White Plains, with a view of erecting at no distant day at that place, unless a more eligible plot can be procured, large and commodious buildings, in keeping with the most advanced theories of treatment in this age. It will probably take a number of years, however, to remove the Asylum. The whole number of inmates under treatment during a year average from 275 to 335, from fifty to eighty of whom are said to recover; from thirty-five to fifty are pronounced "improved;" a smaller number are returned as "not improved;" and twenty-five or thirty die. The largest number are females, and the majority of all received between the ages of twenty and thirty years, after which the number decreases with every decade up to eighty years. Early admission into an asylum is considered desirable, affording not only physical safety to the patient and his family, but greater probability of permanent recovery. The presence of relatives often greatly irritates the poor sufferer, enforced submission always proves sadly injurious, and but few possess the mental and moral faculties to successfully control the insane. The undertaking is the most difficult and dangerous in the world, requiring great sagacity, skill, and delicacy of treatment.