New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-06-25

| them he was compelled to liberate, day
before, the full completion oftheir sentence.
two females. Where he will place fresh
arrivals is not easy to determine. He re-
| Gently wrote to the Recorders, directing
their attention to this fact, but has received
| no reply. There are not sufficient men
physically competent to prepare the stones
for the new buildings inside the Work.
| house, and it is the intention of Cap
tain Noble to present each woman with
| stone hammer. Work OF some kind
would be q god.send to them, for their
| time Is spent in idleness and ribaldry.
Nearly one half of the seventy. five women
| who live there life of ease with more than
sufficient nourishing diet, care little for the
few days or months Imprisonment. They
are, with very few exceptions, women who
have psid periodical visits to the Workhouse
for twenty years. Dissipation and lewd as.
sociations have broken their constitutions,
| and vitiated their characters beyond relief,
and hence life of ease is blessing instead
of a punishment. Some institution must be
provided where these vagabonds can be put
to better use than to be a burden to the tax
payers as well as q curse to society and
themselves.
EDUCATION FOR THE INsANE.-The annual
convention OF the Association of Medical
Superintendent of the Insane. is now in
session at Hartford. and we perceive, by the
published report of the proceedings, that
many facts Ct interest are being developed,
so much so, indeed, that DR.. Barstow gave
detailed description of the result of his
labors in teaching lunatics, and even born
idiots, not only the simpler but the most
advanced branches of education. DR..
Barstow, who has furnished the subjoined
extracts to an exchange paper, prefaces his
observations with the remark that the ex-
put in operation in 1855, at the Richmond
District Lunatic Asylum, Ireland, where
there are, on an average, from ten to twelve
hundred patients. He says:
The pupils are arranged in classes and
divisions, old and young, according to Ca
pacity and proficiency. Object teaching Is
found to be especially adapted to arouse the
attention of the patients. There are also
rhetorical and dramatic entertainments, and
drills military and gymnastic,
The experiment Of imparting elementary
instruction has likewise been attended with
success in the asylums of Iowa and Rich
mond. DR.. Ranny. of the former, said the
success was at first only partial, but de-
cided interest was soon manifested in the
common branches, reading, writing, geogra-
ply andigrammar.
The writer then proceeds to state that
there are now regular exercises in all these
subjects at the Iowa Asylum, the patients
being divided into classes. Considerable
proficiency has been made in these branches,
and the general effect on the household in
excellent.
The results which have attended, the ex-
periments in the above named establish
ments should lead to the adoption of like
efforts in the lunatic asylums, not only Of
Louisiana, but all over the country. With
regard to the New Orleans institution an
effort should be made to alleviate the condi-
ton of the inmates. The Superintendent is
admirably qualified for his position, as we
have had frequent opportunities of ascer-
tanning, but the asylum itself is more fitted
for its original purpose-a jail-than for
place of detention for harmless idiots and
demented humanity. Doubtless two thirds
of the unfortunate inmates there could be
benefited, even under existing circum-
stances, by having their minds diverted and
reawakened through the importing Of
instruction.