was also to have a balanced gender distribution, with approximately 36 female and 35 male staff members. Among the staff of a Kirkbride Plan hospital were the superintending physician, an assisting physician and nurses, supervisors and teachers of each sex, a chaplain, matron, and a nightwatchman. Kirkbride urged that at least two attendants be working in each ward at any given time, and stressed the importance of the superintendent's "proper selection" of attendants, given the extent of their management responsibilities: "The duties of attendants, when faithfully performed, are often harassing, and in many wards, among excited patients, are peculiarly so. On this account pains should always be taken to give them a reasonable amount of relaxation and their position should, in every respect, be made as comfortable as possible." For general labor at the hospital, he suggested that the able-minded patients help maintain the hospital grounds and assist in duties in their respective wards. Kirkbride's estimation of the number of staff as well as their respective compensations was outlined in an 1854 publication on the Kirkbride Plan design. He proposed a living wage for all employees of the hospital, noting that "although in a few institutions a liberal compensation is given, in many, the salaries are quite too low, and entirely inadequate to be depended on, to secure and retain the best kind of talent for the different positions. The services required about the insane, when faithfully performed, are peculiarly trying to the mental and physical powers of any individual, and ought to be liberally paid for." Salary for the superintending physician according to the 1854 guideline was to be USD$1,500 () if the physician's family resided at the hospital, and $2,500 () if they found lodging at a private residence. In addition to the medical staff and attendants, the Kirkbride Plan hospitals also employed laborers of various trades, including resident engineers, carpenters, cooks and dairymaids, gardeners, seamstresses, ironworkers, clothing launderers, and a carriage driver. Decline and phasing out By the late nineteenth century, the Kirkbride design had begun to wane in popularity, largely because the hospitals, which were state-funded, had received significant budget cuts that rendered them difficult to maintain. General psychiatric and medical opinion of Kirkbride's theories regarding the "curability" of mental illness were also questioned by the medical community. Future Status A total of 73 known Kirkbride Plan hospitals were constructed throughout the United States between 1845