While the different forms of insanity present a subject of profoundest study, the various and often changing hallucinations, coupled with the freaks and idiosyncrasies of the individual sufferers, afford matters of lively amusement. On the return of reason, some awake as from a Rip Van Winkle sleep, to finish the conversation or complete the task that occupied them many years before, when they were plunged into insanity. Some during their mental disorders are transported to higher planes of thought, and are gifted with a power of conception, and a skillfulness of utterance, hitherto unknown.

They declaim with great ability on profound subjects, and quote from memory whole chapters of standard works, which had been long forgotten. In this state of mind they compose poetry, and various other contributions for the press. The most amusing freaks occur among those suffering under what is termed perfect mania. With these all power of correct reasoning is suspended—one hallucination possessing the whole mind, though a hundred arguments lie all around to convince to the contrary. Dr. Rush mentions a man who persisted that he had a Caffre in his stomach, who had got into it at the Cape of Good Hope, and all the world could not convince him to the contrary. A maniac during the French Revolution insisted that he had been guillotined—that after his execution the judges had ordered him restored, and that the clumsy executioner had placed the wrong head on him, which he had worn ever since. We saw a fine looking man at this Asylum who believed himself Jesus Christ, and was ingeniously inventing a language to address the world. Some believe themselves kings, queens, or angels; to be the Father of Light, the queen of heaven, the Virgin Mary, or the sister of Jesus. Inflated with such lofty conceptions they not infrequently remain speechless for months, counting it a disgrace to stoop to common mortals. We heard a friend describe an insane lady who for many months fancied herself a china teapot. She would sit for hours each day with her left hand resting on her hip, the arm bowed a little behind her to represent the handle, while the right arm she held upward in the opposite direction, to represent the spout. During all those weary months she suffered indescribable fear, lest some unwieldy foot should kick her over and she be broken to pieces.

As in the Almshouse and Penitentiary, most of the inmates are of foreign blood. Of the 680 admitted in 1869, only 157 were born in the United States, 308 came from Ireland, 156 from Germany, and 17 from England. Of the same class we notice that 375 were Roman Catholics, 206 Protestants, 27 Jews; the faith of the remaining 72 was unknown. Of these 284 were married, 267 single, and 46 widows. Of the 680 admitted 298 were males, and 382 females. 210 were between the ages of thirty and forty, 184 between twenty and thirty, 129 between forty and fifty, 30 were under twenty and 9 over seventy years of age.

The net expenditures of the Institution during 1869 were $128,780.59 or a trifle more than twenty-eight cents per day for each inmate. The expenses of 1870 exceeded $152,278.75.

The medical board is composed of cultivated physicians who with the accommodations now provided are certain to make the Asylum take rank among the noblest public charities of the world.