No. 1.--_Institutions for the Insane._ We have upon our table, the reports for the year 1848-9 of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, (the eighth,) of the Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixteenth,) of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixth,) of the Physician and Superintendent of the M’Lean Asylum for the Insane at Somerville, Massachusetts, (the thirty-first,) and of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, (the second.) The first and fourth are on private, and the other three on a public foundation. 1. We suppose the first in our list combines as many of the substantial advantages for the treatment of patients of this class, as any institution in the world, and we are happy to know, that the prominent principles which have been recognized in its structure and economy, have been adopted in asylums of the latest date. The hospital has been quite full during the whole year, and yet the health of the patients has been remarkably good. The present arrangements are fitted to accommodate 200 patients, and provision will soon be made for receiving 20 more. It is certainly desirable to extend the benefits of such an institution to as large a number as can divide without diminishing the aggregate of good, but we quite concur with Dr. Kirkbride in the opinion, that a larger number than 220 could not be well received in one building, nor receive due attention from one medical officer--“a daily visit to all the wards, and a daily supervision of all the departments by its official head, being exceedingly desirable in every institution for the insane.” Seven of the seventeen deaths during the year, “occurred within a fortnight after the patients’ admission,” and only one had been more than a year in the asylum. Of 1391 patients admitted to this hospital, 725 were under middle age, (35 years,) and 666 over. Of 773 male patients, the leading occupations were as follows:--farmers, 115; merchants, 66; laborers, 62; clerks, 50; carpenters, 30; shoemakers, 22; physicians, 19; seamen and watermen, 19; teachers, 17; tailors, 15; students, 15; NO OCCUPATION, 108. Of 618 females, 66 were seamstresses or mantua-makers, and 64 domestics; store-keepers and attendants in stores, 12, and teachers, 9. Of single females, not pursuing a regular employment, 29 were daughters of farmers, and 29 daughters of merchants. Of the married, 57 were wives of farmers; 39 of laborers; 35 of merchants; 23 of clerks. Of the 618, 244 were single, 286 married and 88 widows. And of the 1391, 773 were natives of Pennsylvania; 91 of New Jersey; 197 from other of the United States; 340 from foreign parts, of whom 189 were from Ireland!