Classification of discharges: Deaths 328; Removals 3,366. Number of maternity cases during the year: confinements, 119; living births, 111. The number admitted during the year, 3,625, was an increase of 21 from the previous year. The largest number present was 1,510 on Feb. 23; the weekly average was 1,289, or 58 more than the previous year. Nearly 94 per cent. of the persons admitted were treated in the hospitals. Of the 328 deaths, 45 were among the insane. Among the diseases treated were 202 cases of syphilis. In the 119 maternity cases, 34 of the mothers were born in Ireland, 10 in England, 26 in the British provinces, 9 in other foreign countries, and 40 in the United States. The women in the pauper department manufactured 18,743 articles during the year, and the women in the insane ward 13,744 articles. During the forty-four years that have elapsed since this Institution was established, 111,484 persons have been admitted as inmates, with a yearly average of 2,534. The last Legislature authorized the expenditure of $20,000 for a home for nurses, the first of its kind among the State Institutions. This building is nearly completed, and will prove of great benefit to all concerned. The nurses will have the advantage of entire separation from the patients during their hours of rest, and the patients themselves will feel the effect of the change. The training-school for nurses has completed its second year, and the work in this department is steadily improving: the men's hospital has been recently placed under its management. The new asylum for women, erected at a remarkably low cost, proves to be a most satis factory building, and provides for much better classification, and consequently better care, of the inmates. Renovations and improvements throughout the buildings of the Institution are continued, and but a short time will elapse before nearly the whole establishment will be new. The number of hospital cases has greatly increased over that of any former year, so that the over-crowding has been more sensibly felt, especially in the men's hospital; and the need of a cottage for consumptives, suggested last year, is more urgent than ever. The farm continues a valuable adjunct to the Institution, both as regards the well-being of the inmates, - enabling many of them to engage in healthful, out-door employment, and from the point of view of economical management. After an altogether efficient and satisfactory service of five years, Dr. Herbert B. Howard has resigned the position of Superintendent of the Almshouse, to accept the charge of the Massachusetts General Hospital; and the Assistant Superintendent, Dr. John H. Nichols, has been appointed to succeed him. Classification of discharges: Deaths, 83; Removals, 1,542; Total, 1,625. The population of this Institution is made up of three classes, viz., paupers, prisoners, and insane, — the latter occupying that portion of the Institution designated by the law of 1895 as the State Asylum for Insane Criminals. At the end of the official year there were 17 less paupers than at the beginning, and 25 more insane; while the number of prisoners had increased from 578 to 648. The largest number of all classes during the year was 1,360, the smallest 1,043, and the average 1,186; the corresponding figures for the previous year being 1,248, 946, and 1,098. The largest number of admissions in any one month was 213, in the month of October, out of a total of 1,703 for the year. Among the 1,363 prisoners received, 861 were classed as drunkards, 242 as vagrants, and 236 as tramps; 484 of them had been admitted previously, viz., 262 for the second time, 122 for the third, 49 for the fourth, 14 for the fifth, 14 for the sixth, 10 for the seventh, 4 for the eighth, one for the tenth, one for the eleventh, one for the twelfth, and one for the thirteenth. Of the sentences, 851 were for six months, and 241 for one year; the rest for periods varying from 2 to 24 months. Of the 1,703 persons admitted, 547 were born in Massachusetts, 287 in other parts of the United States, 474 in Ireland, 113 in England, 122 in the British provinces, 46 in Scotland, 22 in Germany, 20 in Sweden, and the remainder in other foreign countries. Of the 62 cases admitted during the year to that portion of the Institution known as the State Asylum for Insane Criminals, 2 were transferred from State Lunatic Hospitals, 58 were committed directly from penal institutions and by the Courts, and 2 were transferred from the almshouse department of the State Farm. Of the 37 cases discharged, 6 were discharged as recovered. There were 15 deaths. Of the 325 cases remaining in this portion of the Institution at the end of the year, only 241 can be classed as criminal insane, the remaining 84 being those left of the pauper class of insane at the time of the opening of the Asylum. Of the 362 cases under treatment during the year, mechanical restraint for short periods was used in 7, and seclusion for short periods in 51. Eighty inmates, on the average, have been employed in chair-seating. The two larger departments of this Institution, namely, the workhouse and the asylum portions, have both increased in the number of inmates during the last year, while the pauper department has slightly decreased. Indeed there has been a steady reduction of the number of paupers for some years past, and the result is likely to be that they will finally be withdrawn altogether, leaving only the sane and insane prisoners. On account of the increase of the number of criminal insane committed to the Asylum department, the accommodations are already becoming limited, as nearly every one of these patients requires a separate room. But the danger of overcrowding will be diminished by the transfer, already begun, of most of the older non-criminal cases to Medfield Asylum. Some reconstruction of the dormitories now occupied by this class of cases will be necessary to render them suitable for the occupation of the so-called criminal insane. There has been no variation, during the year, from the high standard maintained by this Institution in all its departments. THE WORCESTER LUNATIC HOSPITAL. (Opened, 1833.) Trustees: Frances M. Lincoln, of Worcester, Chairman; Henry S. Nourse, of South Lancaster, Secretary; A. George Bullock, of Worcester; Thomas H. Gage, M.D., of Worcester; Rockwood Hoar, of Worcester; Francis C. Lowell, of Boston; Sarah E. Whitin, of Whitinsville. |