NINETEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

STATE BOARD OF LUNACY AND CHARITY OF MASSACHUSETTS.

POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE BOARD.

The State Board of Lunacy and Charity is given general supervision over the State Lunatic Hospitals, the State Almshouse, the State Farm, and the State Reform Schools; and when directed by the Governor may assume and exercise the powers of the Boards of Trustees of said institutions, and it may" assign any of its powers and duties to agents appointed for the purpose, and execute any of its functions by said agents, or by committees appointed from and by said Board.” The Board is authorized, with the consent of the Governor, to appoint such officers as may be necessary, and fix their compensation. It is required to make its own by-laws, and make an annual report of its doings to the Governor and Council, embodying in the report a statement of the receipts. and expenses of the Board and of the several above-named State institutions, and also a statement of annual estimates, and a concise review of the work of the several institutions for the year preceding, with such suggestions and recommendations as to them, and the charitable and reformatory interests of the State, as may be deemed expedient." There is also to be included in the annual report information obtained from the annual returns required to be made by the overseers of the poor of the several cities and towns of the Commonwealth, of the numbers and cost of persons supported and relieved at the expense of such cities and towns.

The Board is required, at least once a year, to "visit all places where State paupers are supported, and ascertain from actual examination and inquiry whether the laws in respect

to such paupers are properly observed"; to visit the State. Almshouse and the Lyman School for Boys at least once a month, and for this purpose it shall, by some woman, or women, deputed by it, have access at all hours of the day or night to the portions of said institutions occupied by the women or children there maintained at the public expense"; and to visit and inspect every private asylum or receptacle for the insane at least once in every six months. It is charged with the care and maintenance of indigent and neglected children and juvenile offenders coming into its custody through commitment by the courts or otherwise, including attendance at Court in the interest of such offenders. It is required that it shall "as often as once a year visit all children maintained wholly or in part by the State, all who have been indentured or placed in charge of any person by any state institution, board or officer of the Commonwealth, or under any provision hereof, and all minor children supported at the expense of any city or town; and shall inquire into the condition of such children, and make such other investigations in relation thereto as it may think fit; and for this purpose it may have private interviews with such children at any time." It prescribes the form of certificates required of overseers of the poor of cities and towns, when paupers are sent therefrom to the State Almshouse. It " may determine in what manner overseers of the poor shall make contracts for the support of town paupers, and may visit and inspect all places where paupers are so supported." The Board has the same powers in relation to State paupers who are inmates of either of the State Lunatic Hospitals, or of the State Almshouse, and their property, as are by law vested in Overseers of the Poor in reference to paupers supported or relieved by towns. It may transfer pauper inmates from one State charitable institution or lunatic hospital to another, or send them to any State or place where they belong; on the application of the Trustees of the State Reform Schools may transfer inmates of said Schools to the State Farm, and return them again to the Schools; in certain emergencies may transfer inmates of the State Almshouse to the State Farm; on the certificate of two physicians may transfer and commit to the State Lunatic Hospitals and

Asylums, inmates of the State Almshouse, the State Farm, and the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates; and under certain conditions may transfer inmates of private asylums and of the Boston Insane Hospital to other private asylums and to State Lunatic Hospitals, and from such Hospitals to private asylums and private dwellings; it may also transfer any pauper lunatic from a State. charitable institution or Lunatic Hospital to the Lunatic Ward of the State Almshouse. When the overseers of the poor of cities and towns fail to comply with the law forbidding the retention in almshouses of pauper children over a certain age, the authority vested in said overseers may be exercised by the State Board to the exclusion of the over

seers.

In the cases of sick State poor supported by cities and towns, and State poor temporarily relieved, as well as in cases of burial, the State Board has large administrative authority, including the visitation of the several cities and towns of the Commonwealth by its agents, investigation and decision of settlements, and the auditing of bills of local authorities against the Commonwealth.

The Statutes provide that the Board shall act as Commissioners of Lunacy, "with power to investigate the question of the insanity and condition of any person committed to any lunatic hospital or asylum, public or private, or restrained of his liberty by reason of alleged insanity at any place within this Commonwealth, and shall discharge any person so committed or restrained, if, in its opinion, such person is not insane, or can be cared for after such discharge, without danger to others and with benefit to himself." The Board is required to cause application to be made for the commitment to a hospital of any insane person, whether a public charge or otherwise, whom it has reason to believe is deprived of proper treatment, and is confined in an almshouse or other place. It also has the legal custody of all persons removed from the State Hospitals for the Insane, to be boarded in families under the authority of the Board, and the power of return of such persons to the Hospitals; and unlimited power of transfer of State patients from one lunatic hospital to another.

MEMBERS.

COMMITTEES.

CHIEF AGENTS.

The nine members of the Board are appointed by the Governor and Council for terms of five years each, or until their successors are chosen. They serve without compensation, but their travelling expenses are paid by the State.

There was no change in the membership of the Board during the last official year; Mrs. Codman and Mr. Donnelly, whose terms of office expired June 7, 1897, being immediately re-appointed. Since that time Mr. Haskell has resigned, and Mr. Jabez Fox, of Cambridge, has been appointed in his place. The membership is now as follows:

GEORGE W. JOHNSON, of Brookfield, Chairman.
HENRIETTA G. CODMAN, of Brookline, Vice-Chairman.
CHARLES F. DONNELLY, of Boston.

EDWARD HITCHCOCK, M.D., of Amherst.

ANNE B. RICHARDSON, of Lowell.

LABAN PRATT, of Boston.

LEONTINE LINCOLN, of Fall River.

JOHN L. HILDRETH, M.D., of Cambridge.
JABEZ FOX, of Cambridge.

The By-Laws of the Board provide that regular meetings shall be held on the first Saturday of each month, in the rooms of the Board at the State House, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, or at such other place and hour as the Board may from time to time direct. Special meetings may be called by the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman. The By-Laws also provide for the annual election, in June, of a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, a Clerk, a Superintendent of In-Door-Poor, a Superintendent of Out-Door-Poor, and an Inspector of Institutions.

The Standing Committees of the Board are as follows:

Committee on Charities: Mrs. RICHARDSON, Mr. DONNELLY, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. PRATT, Mr. Fox.

Committee on Lunacy: Dr. HITCHCOCK, Mrs. CODMAN, Mr. LINCOLN, Dr. HILDRETH.

Committee on Inspection of Institutions: Mr. PRATT, Mrs. RICHARDSON, Mr. LINCOLN.

Committee on Removal of Insane Persons out of the State: The CHAIRMAN, the VICE-CHAIRMAN, Mr. PRATT.

The Executive Committee consists of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman, and the Chairmen of the several Standing Committees.

The chief agents of the Board are the Heads of the several Departments.

Stephen C. Wrightington is Superintendent of the Department of In-Door-Poor. His Deputies are Joshua F. Lewis, M.D., in charge of the Central Division; and Bertha W. Jacobs, in charge of the Division of Visitation.

William P. Derby, M.D., is Superintendent of the Department of Out-Door-Poor. His Deputy is George B. Tufts. Charles E. Woodbury, M.D, is Inspector of Institutions. His Deputy is Henry C. Prentiss, M.D.

John D. Wells is Clerk and Auditor of the Board, and its disbursing officer.

In addition to these agents, the Board regularly employs nineteen clerks, twenty-six visitors, three transportation officers, and two messengers; making a total of fifty-eight persons, of whom thirty-three are men, and twenty-five women. It has also in its service between seventy and eighty volunteer visitors, all women. The clerks are employed at the State House during the statutory State House hours; the visitors and transportation officers are not restricted to these hours, but go whenever and wherever their duties may call them, both within the State, and beyond its borders.

ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENTS.

In the Central Division of the Department of In-DoorPoor there are, under the immediate direction of its Deputy Superintendent, six clerks, three men, and three women; and two transportation officers, a man and a woman. Here the general business of the Department is transacted, including the investigation of settlements of the pauper inmates of the several State institutions, with reference to the question of liability of support, whether by State, town, or private individual; and this Division also has charge of the transportation of paupers out of the State to the states and countries where they belong, and of transfers between State Institutions. The Division of Visitation has the care

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