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To His Excellency LEVI LINCOLN, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The undersigned, in their respective capacities, as Commissioners for the construction, and Trustees for the management of the State Lunatic Hospital, at Worcester, have the pleasure to inform your Excellency, that the edifice erected for that purpose is now upon the point of completion. The officers have also been appointed, so that it is now confidently believed that the operations of the institution itself may be commenced by the 10th day of the ensuing January. By an act of the Legislature, passed on the 24th day of March last, it was provided, that when the Hospital should be ready for the reception of inmates, the Governor of the Commonwealth should issue his proclamation, announcing that fact; and it was made the duty of the County Commissioners then to remove to the Hospital all such lunatics as might be at that time confined, by authority of law, within their respective counties. It must, however, be obvious to your Excellency, that it will be utterly impracticable for the Superintendent of the institution to receive in one day, or even in a single week, all those insane persons whose removal is peremptorily enjoined by the above mentioned law. But few individuals can be received and properly taken care of in a day, without occasional hazard to the safety, and certain prejudice to the comfort of each. Some time, also, will be required by the Superintendent to learn the peculiar tendencies, and dispositions of each of the inmates, as preparatory even to an imperfect classification of the whole. In view of these considerations the Trustees take the liberty to suggest, that according to a reasonable construction of the language of the law, the institution cannot be "ready for the reception of inmates" at an earlier period, or with any greater expedition, than is compatible with their safety and welfare. On consultation with the Superintendent, the Trustees are led to believe that seven weeks will be the shortest period indispensable for the reception of those who will be brought from the several counties, exclusive of Suffolk and Worcester. They therefore respectfully suggest to your Excellency the propriety of designating the counties from which they shall be received, and the times of reception, commencing on or about the 10th day of January next, as follows, viz: -- from Barnstable, Nantucket and Dukes counties, the first week; from Berkshire the second week; from Plymouth and Norfolk the third week; from Bristol the fourth week; from Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin the fifth week; from Essex, on different days, if practicable, the sixth week; and from Middlesex the seventh week; and after the seventh week, that those from Suffolk be removed, on different days, not to exceed six per day, until all are received, and that those from Worcester be removed last of all.

The Trustees also solicit your Excellency's attention to another topic too closely connected with the future comfort and healthfulness of the institution, to allow them to pass it unnoticed. The Hospital will be, at first, in a perfectly pure and wholesome state, untainted and uninfected. Some of the jails and houses of correction from which lunatics are to be removed, are, it is well known, in a decayed or ruinous condition; in consequence of which they have become impure and verminous, and some of the lunatics themselves are, as the Trustees have been informed, in an offensive condition of filth and squalidness. But if suitable care and attention shall be bestowed upon such individuals previous to their reception at Worcester, the Hospital may be afterwards preserved in a state of neatness, comfort and salubrity; while, on the other hand, the consequence of general neglect or carelessness will inevitably be to convert the Hospital into a receptacle of all such contagious diseases, and noxious insects, as have, elsewhere, proved such prolific and almost ineradicable causes of discomfort and annoyance.

The Trustees, therefore, request that, by circular letters, or in such other way as your Excellency may deem more eligible, it may be most strenuously enjoined upon all those upon whom the duty of removing the insane to the Hospital will devolve, to cause each individual to be put into a state of perfect bodily cleanliness before removed, and to clothe them all in an entire new dress, (1) on their being taken from their respective places of confinement, in order that this unfortunate class of our fellow beings may realize every benefit which can be derived from a favorable change in their physical sensations, combined with a change of residence, of regimen, and of moral treatment.

HORACE MANN,
BEZALEEL TAFT, JR.,
WM. B. CALHOUN,
A. D. FOSTER,
Commissioners.
Trustees.
Worcester, December 6th, 1832.

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BY HIS EXCELLENCY
LEVI LINCOLN,
GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS, in and by an Act of the Legislature of this Commonwealth, approved March 24, 1832, entitled "An Act concerning the State Lunatic Hospital," provision is made in the third section thereof, to the effect, and in the words following, viz: "Section 3. Be it further enacted, That so soon as the Hospital shall be prepared for the reception of the insane, and that fact shall be made public by proclamation of the Governor of the Commonwealth, all orders, decrees and sentences for the confinement of any lunatic in any jail or house of correction within the Commonwealth, thereafter to be made, by any court or any judicial officers, by virtue of the statutes of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, chapter sixty-second, and of one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, chapter twenty-eighth, shall be so far modified, that all such lunatics shall thereafter be committed to the custody of the Superintendent of the Hospital at Worcester; and all lunatics, who, at the time when such proclamation shall be made, shall be confined in any jail or house of correction, under any order, decree or sentence of any court or any judicial officers, by virtue of the statutes above mentioned, shall, as soon as may be practicable, be removed to said Hospital, under the direction of the mayor and alder men of the city of Boston, or of the county commissioners of the several counties of the Commonwealth, at the expense of said city and counties respectively. And it shall be the duty of every keeper of any jail, and master of a house of correction, from which any lunatic shall be removed to said Hospital, by force of the provisions of this act, to transmit, with such lunatic, a statement in writing of all such facts connected with his confinement, and the cause thereof, and the length of time he has been confined, as may be in his power." -- And whereas, by an act of the Legislature of this Commonwealth, approved this twelfth day of January, eighteen hundred and thirty-three, entitled, "An Act in addition to an Act concerning the State Lunatic Hospital," provision is made in the first section thereof, to the effect, and in the words following, viz: "Section 1st. Be it enacted, &c. That when the Governor shall issue his proclamation, making known that the State Lunatic Hospital is prepared for the reception of insane persons, he be and hereby is authorized, therein, to prescribe and direct in what order and succession, at what times, and, in what state of preparation, as to cleanliness and clothing, the insane persons confined in jails and houses of correction, shall be removed to said Hospital, according to the provisions of the third section of the act to which this is in addition; and that no insane persons shall be removed to said Hospital, from any jail or house of correction, before the time in said proclamation prescribed for such removal therefrom; and that the clothing, which shall thus be prescribed for said insane persons, shall be paid for (if not otherwise furnished) by the several counties in which those persons are confined." -- And whereas, notice has been officially had, from the Commissioners appointed to superintend the building of said Hospital, and the Trustees appointed for the government and superintendence of said institution, that the said Hospital is now so far completed and provided, as to be in a situation to admit of the reception of those, who, by the statute first before referred to, are to be the subjects of confinement and care therein.

Now THEREFORE, I, LEVI LINCOLN, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do issue this Proclamation, making public the fact, that the State Lunatic Hospital, at Worcester, in the county of Worcester, is prepared for the reception of the insane; and that the provisions of the several statutes of the Commonwealth applicable to said Hospital, do now attach and henceforth apply thereto, and to all such insane persons as are made the subjects for confinement and treatment therein. And I do hereby prescribe and require the removal of those lunatics who are now confined in any jail or house of correction, under any order, decree or sentence of any court, or any judicial officers, by virtue of the statutes of the Commonwealth, referred to in the third section of the act first afore recited, in the manner following, viz: -- from the counties of Barnstable, Nantucket and Dukes, and from the county of Berkshire, between the 12th day of January and the 25th day of the same month; -- Plymouth and Norfolk, between January 25th and February 1st; -- Bristol, between February 1st and February 8th; -- Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden, between February 8th and February l5th; -- Essex, between February 15th and February 22d; -- Middlesex, between February 22d and March 1st; -- Suffolk, between March 1st and March 10th; -- and those from Worcester to be removed after March 10th. And where there are exceeding six in any county, not more than that number to be removed in one day. And if, from sickness, or any other sufficient cause, any lunatic, in either of the counties, cannot be removed, within the times herein respectively prescribed, notice thereof shall be given to the superintendent of said Hospital, and such lunatic shall be removed therefrom, as soon thereafter as may be practicable. AND I DO HEREBY FURTHER REQUIRE AND ENJOIN, that, previous to the removal of any lunatic, from either of the jails or houses of correction in the counties respectively, the person of each and every such lunatic shall be made perfectly clean, his or her hair cut short, and that he or she shall be clothed with fresh linen or cotton, (having a change thereof,) and a new suit of strong woollen or satinet cloth, of a mixed dark grey color, with woollen stockings or socks, and one pair of new shoes, together with an outside garment of some plain and substantial woollen cloth, and a hat, cap, or other covering for the head, suited to the sex of the lunatic. Provided, however, in the case of any lunatic habitually so furiously mad, as not to admit of his or her being so clothed, such covering as may be kept upon the person of such lunatic, and in sufficient quantity for his or her comfort in the removal, and one change thereof, shall be substituted for the dress before prescribed.

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And I do hereby also give notice, that, from and after the date of this Proclamation, all lunatics, who by virtue of the statutes of 1797, ch. 62, and of 1816, ch. 28, are subject to confinement under process of law, are to be committed to the custody of the Superintendent of said State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.

Given under my hand and the seal of the Commonwealth, this twelfth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-seventh.

BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR,
LEVI LINCOLN.

EDWARD D. BANGS, Secretary.

GOD SAVE THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS!

Note by the Superintendent. -- The patients admitted to the Hospital during the first four months after its opening, were almost exclusively from the jails and houses of correction. It was gratifying to find, that, in obedience to the proclamation of the Governor, they were well clad, cleanly, and free from vermin and infectious diseases. With one single exception this was the case; and it may be added, that, during the time the Hospital has been open, no infectious disease has been brought into it from jails, houses of correction, or alms-houses, notwithstanding the great number of patients from these receptacles, from almost every part of the Commonwealth.

The Superintendent bears, with great pleasure, this testimony to the good appearance and condition of the pauper lunatics, as they have been brought under his care. -- May, 1837.