emale patients in an institution for the
care and treatment of the insane. We have in the Harrisburg
hospital, Dr. Jane Garver, as physician for the female insane,
but she is subordinate to the male physician. She has a female
physician to assist her. Dr. Bennett was appointed and took
charge in July, 1880, with Dr. Anna Kingler as her assistant. Dr.
Kingler resigned, and went to India as medical missionary; was
succeeded by Dr. Rebecca S. Hunt, who, after more than a year's
service, also resigned to go to India as medical missionary. Dr.
Bennett has now two women physicians to assist her in the care of
more than six hundred patients, nearly as many as, if not more
than, are in the female departments of the Harrisburg, Danville,
and Warren hospitals all combined.

Dr. Bennett's hospital is a model one. There is a total absence
of physical restraint, as used formerly under male
superintendents, and, I may say, as still used in other hospitals
than that of Norristown. Her skill in providing amusement,
instruction and employment of various kinds, for the comfort and
restoration of her patients to sanity and physical health, I feel
sure has never been equaled in any hospital for the treatment of
insane women. It is exceedingly interesting to see the school
which she has established, and in which a large number of the
insane are daily instructed, amused and interested. It is well
known, now, that when the mind of the insane can be drawn away
from their delusions by employment, or whatever else may interest
them and absorb their attention, they are on the road to health.
The public are not yet fully awake to the great reform effected
in having women physicians for the women insane. Insane women
have been treated as though there were no diseases peculiar to
the sex. Never, so far as I have been able to learn, have they
been treated by the means used for the relief of women in their
homes. An eminent surgeon of Philadelphia informed me a few days
since, that thirty years ago he was an assistant to Dr.
Kirkbride, and desired to treat a patient for uterine troubles,
but was rebuked by Dr. K., and told never to attempt to use the
appliances relied on in private practice. My informant added that
he believed not a single insane woman had ever received spec