asylum--a hospital
department for the concentration of professional treatment, and a
maintenance department for the separate care of the chronic insane. He
was anxious to secure as much as possible of the compactness and ease of
administration of the linear plan of construction, with wings on either
side of the executive building of long corridors occupied as day rooms,
with sleeping rooms opening out of them on both sides. But he wanted to
avoid the depressing influence of this monotonous structure, as the
better results of variety and increased opportunities of subdivision and
classification are well recognized. He was not, however, prepared to
accept wholly that abrupt departure from the linear plan known as the
"cottage plan," which in some institutions has been carried to the
extreme of erecting a detached building for every ward. The climate of
St. Lawrence county forbade this. Her winters are as vigorous as those
of her Canadian neighbors, even as her people are almost as ebullient in
their politics as the vigorous warring liberals and conservatives across
the river. And there are features of the linear plan that can only be
left out of our asylum structure at the expense of efficiency. Other
rules that he formulated from his experience were that a building for
the insane should never exceed two stories in height; that fire proof
construction and at least two stairways from the upper floors should be
provided; that day rooms should be on the first and sleeping rooms on
the second floor; that all buildings for the insane who suffer from
sluggish and enfeebled circulation of the blood should be capable of
being warmed to 70 deg. in the coldest weather; that ample cubic space and
ventilation should be provided; and that, as far as possible, without
too great increase of the cost of maintenance or sacrificing essential
provisions for treatment and necessary restraint, asylums should aim to
reproduce the conditions of domestic life.

[Illustration: THE ST. LAWRENCE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.]

State Architect Isaac G. Perry planned the St. Lawrence State Hospital
buildings on ideas suggested by medical experience, with a breadth of
comprehension and a technical skill in combining adaptability, utility,
and beauty that have accomplished wonders. The buildings are
satisfactory in every particular to every one who has seen them, and
even the most casual observer is impressed with the effect of beauty.
This was accomplish