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So far as we have knowledge, the first newspaper ever issued from a Lunatic Asylum and conducted by the inmates, was the "Retreat Gazette," published at Hartford, Connect-icut, in 1837. The first number was issued in August of that year. It was edited solely by a patient, who had however been an editor of a paper before he became insane. After his recovery and removal from the Retreat, the Gazette was discontinued. Other patients of the Retreat contributed to it. The following effusion we select from the second number.

TO THE ASSISTANT MATRON.

My dear Miss--, although in the dark,
I cannot refrain from striking a spark
Of grateful emotion -- true heart-felt devotion
To you for your kindness,
In mending and starching my collars and shirts.
You are not like flirts,
In both town and city,
Who vainly attempt to make themselves pretty,
By spending their time and their parents' money
In decking their persons out so funny,
That men of sense take them to be fools,
That ought to be kept in their mothers' schools,
Until they fear what a young miss dreads --
That they shall live to be lonely old maids.
But, truly you've done up my clothes so neat,
When I put them on they look so complete,
That I fancy my wife must have handled them over.
But no -- they've been done up by one,
Who, though not now a wife,
Yet I'll bet my gray hairs against a jack knife,
That she'd make one as good, as neat and as true,
As ever blest man, in the old world or new.

To this succeeded the "Asylum Journal," published by the inmates of the Vermont Asylum, at Brattleboro'. The first number was published, November 1, 1842. For a consider-able time it was issued once a week, and now once a month. It is an interesting paper, and has we believe an extensive circulation.

Quite recently a newspaper has been started by the in-mates of the Crichton Royal Institution for Lunatics, Dum-fries, Scotland. It is entitled "The New Moon or Crichton Royal Institution Register," and has for its motto,

Hail! awful madness. Hail!
Nor best nor wisest are exempt from thee,
Folly -- Folly's only Free." -- PENROSE.

It is edited, composed and corrected, exclusively by in-mates. From the second number dated January 3d, 1845, we select the following

SONNET.

"Do thou with method tranquilize my mind;
The perfect harmony of form infuse
Into me, as to Thee I meekly pray --
So that men looking on me well may say,
The gift of life he doth not now abuse,
Over his soul religion holdeth sway.
My spirit weeps the oft-neglected chance
Of many a bright employ, if strength had been
Exerted kindly, as 'twas kindly given
And many a weeping figure now presents
Itself with this -- Oh, take a thought and mend
Neglected counsel comes hard home to me;
Departed chance, I deeply sigh for thee --
Yet, fettered tho' I am, my thoughts fly up to Heaven."
CRICHTON INSTITUTION, Oct. 16th, 1843.

Until within a few years, there was no Journal exclusively devoted to the subject of Insanity. Now there are three, viz: one at Paris, The "Annales-Medico Psychologiques," another published at Berlin, and our own. Probably others will soon arise to meet the public demand for information, relating to disorders of the mind.

That such a Journal has not before this been published in England, is, as the Medico Chirurgical Review observes, rather a "wonder."

On this subject, the editor of the Review says, "BROTHER JONATHAN" is, assuredly, "going a-head" in physic as well as in commerce, and all the various branches of art, science and literature. Free, or at least democratic institutions, have a general tendency to liberate the mind from the shackles and forms imposed on it by despotic governments; as may be seen in a comparison of China with Great Britain. But as America is still more democratic than England, so, in the former, there is greater propensity to spurn the boun-daries within which the current of thought, invention and speculation runs in the "old world." The "JOURNAL OF INSANITY" conveys a new idea; and the wonder is, that it never struck the encephalon of John Bull, who is not a little prone to this terrible malady, and who expends many mil-lions annually on institutions for its reception and treatment."