WHAT SHALL BE DONE FOR THE INSANE?--The Report for 1853 of the Trustees of the Hospital for the Insane, in the State of Maine, contains a remark equal to a conclusive reason in favor of hereafter building every new insane hospital for one sex only--a recommendation lately submitted to the public by Medical Superintendents. The Maine Trustees say, "It is very important the public should have every possible assurance that patients of one sex should not know, except by report, that there are those of the other sex in the hospital." This testimony, so official and experienced, is full of meaning, and it will be used by many voices in a wise way to effect a reform. Pecuniary economy alone has led, in most places, to the present method of combining insane men and women in the same building. One building of a determined size, it has been argued, can be more cheaply supported than two, having together a capacity to accommodate the same number of patients as the larger one. But, whenever in any population a new hospital must be erected for increasing numbers, it will not be attended with an extra expense in supporting it, to appropriate it to one sex, and to remove into it the patients of this sex from the prior institution. New ones ordered by a Legislature with an intention to devote each to one sex, can, from their foundations, be so arranged as to secure the attaining of many special advantages relating to social parlors, amusement saloons, reading-rooms, work-rooms, private rooms for interviews between patients and their near relations, bath-rooms, &c. The proper locations of the noisy, of the homicidal, and of the dreadfully impulsive in various ways, so as to prevent them from injuriously disturbing others, is a serious problem of difficult solution in most hospitals now in operation. At present, all of the same sex are in the same wing; and therefore the timid are sometimes much distressed or excited by the furious we have alluded to. The difficulty of solving the problem will be almost removed in a hospital for one sex, by placing the furious at the far end of one wing, and those who would be hurtfully disturbed by them in the other wing; thereby separating them through the intervention of the centre building. The proposed reform will enlarge the liberty and the privileges of patients, both within the buildings, and outside of them in walks, courts, or gardens. Females will be exempt from a risk, to which they are now subject in the best-conducted institutions, of being observed by male patients and their attendants through windows overlooking the grounds. Now, excited patients must often be secluded in rooms, or limited to small courts for air and exercise, to keep them from being seen by the other sex; whereas these very patients may more than others need daily walks with their attendants as the surest means of soothing their fury.