proven so successful elsewhere, the lives of a larger proportion of the motherless infants of this city will be saved. It should also be said that the present Commissioner of Public Charities, whose attention was particularly drawn to the high death rate hitherto prevailing, has made the Infants' Hospital a subject of special care, and that since last January there has been a very marked improvement in that institution, especially among the infants for whom it has been possible to secure wet nurses. The number of wet nurses is, however, very limited, and the plan of boarding-out in families will always be needed to supplement the work of the institution. The Committee has received contributions amounting to $2,323, of which $1,600 was contributed directly to the State Charities Aid Association for this work, and $723 was received in response to appeals issued by the Joint Committee. The finances of the Committee may be summarized as follows: *Contributions received to October 11th... Interest on deposits Total receipts Due from City to October 1st $2,323 00 2 46 $2,325 46 805 70 $3,131 16 Expenditures to October 11th have amounted to..... $2,639 36 Outstanding bills October 11th ... Balance October 11th, if outstanding bills were paid and City money received... 72.00 $2,711 36 319 80 $3,131 16 The process of audit of the City bills by the Department of Charities and the Comptroller is a very slow one, and in conse quence of this delay the Committee has been obliged to make a loan. In the absence of the Board of Managers of the two asso *For list of contributors see page 101. ciations, two members of the Committee have advanced, one $200 and one $210, and there are outstanding bills unpaid amounting to $72. It is estimated that the net expenses of the Committee during the next six months, so far as they can now be foreseen, will amount to about $1,800. Deducting the balance that would be on hand if the City bills were paid, there is remaining the sum of $1,480 which it will be necessary to secure in order to fulfil the agreement with the Commissioner of Charities. Checks should be made payable to the order of James A. Scrymser, Treasurer, 37 Wall street. SUMMARY OF THE ASSOCIATION'S WORK FOR DESTITUTE CHILDREN. It appears from the foregoing reports that on October 1, 1898, the State Charities Aid Association, through its central office and its various committees, had under its supervision no less than 604 children, distributed as follows: Boarding in families, under care of: Richmond County Committee... Joint Committee (A. I. C. P. and S. C. A. A.) on Foundlings ... 56 16 1 27 44 144 With mothers, in situations in the country, under supervision of 272 Total.... 604 Richmond County Committee..... Allegany 66 66 Newburgh Agency for Dependent Children... REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON HOSPITALS. The reports of County Visiting Committees, an abstract of which is given elsewhere in this report, show numerous improvements in the provision made in connection with alms houses for the care of the sick and infirm. In Westchester County a hospital building in connection with the almshouse is in course of erection, and in several other counties minor alterations and additions have been made for a similar purpose. Not as much progress has been made as was hoped for in the employment of trained nurses in almshouses and almshouse hospitals. The greatest need of the almshouses of the State as a whole, remains that of better accommodation and care for the sick, the aged, and the infirm. In New York City the condition of public hospitals has materially improved during the year, as shown by the reports of the New York and Kings County Committees. In the Borough of Richmond there is still urgent need for the erection of a small hospital in connection with the Almshouse. The Kings County Hospital, which has long been seriously overcrowded and in need of radical alterations, is about to secure most of the needed improvements. In August last the Board of Estimate and Apportionment appropriated $100,000 for this purpose, and plans for the improvements have already been adopted by the Department, and approved by the State Board of Charities. In the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx there have also been noticeable improvements, especially in administration. Most of the building operations undertaken under the authorization of 1896 to expend one million dollars for the almshouse and public hospitals of this city, are now completed, though there remains a balance of some $350,000, which is no longer available on account of the debt limit. While material relief has been provided by this appropriation, it has to be said that the buildings have been, in many ways, badly planned, and badly constructed. Our last Annual Report alluded to the pressing need for larger quarters for the three reception hospitals, Gouverneur, Harlem, and Fordham. The new Gouverneur Hospital is still unfinished and relief has not as yet been provided for Harlem, but is promised in the immediate future. Fordham Hospital is the only one of the three which now occupies its new building, which, although badly located, badly planned, and not altogether well built, is a very great improvement over the former building. The food supplies have been during the past year somewhat better than in previous years, though as yet they have not reached a proper standard. The clothing supplies have been lamentably deficient during the whole year, as have also been minor ward supplies, and shoes and such other articles as are procured from the penal institutions of the State. In the general management of the institutions there have been since last January signs in all directions of a more constant and careful attention to the business affairs of the Department, including the purchase and distribution of supplies, and a greater sense of duty and responsibility on the part of the various employees, indicating a more constant and efficient oversight by the head of the Department. The large number of consumptive patients in the public hospitals of this city has given the Committee much concern. While many of these have reached the incurable stage of the disease, they are a constant source of danger to the other patients in the hospitals anl to the community at large, as they come and go from one institution to another. The danger of the spread of consumption throughout the community by infection has now been so generally recognized, and the public has been so frequently warned by Boards of Health, State and local, and informed of the precautions by which the danger may be minimized, that it would seem that the time had come for consideration by the public, and by the Legislature, of the further duty of the State in the premises. As this is a matter which affects the lives of our fellow citizens, and the exposure of young and growing families to a disease whose progress under present methods is usually steadily downward, thus depriving the State of the services of hundreds of bread winners, the humanitarian and economic importance of the matter can hardly be overstated. In view of the many considerations-sanitary, scientific and social-that enter into the question of the removal of tuberculous patients from their homes, and their collection in a State-supported colony, the Committee has made inquiry as to the status and results of similar efforts elsewhere. There are a few private institutions in this State for the care of tuberculous patients, but none that are free to the needy poor. A Committee was appointed by the Legislature of 1898, consisting of Senators Brush, Davis and Gallagher, to investi gate the subject of establishing a State Hospital in the Adirondack Mountains for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. The Chairman of this Committee has visited the recently-established Massachusetts State Hospital for Consumptives, and will doubtless include a description of it in the report of his Committee to the Legislature of 1899. The Committee is not informed as to what steps have been taken in the various States of the Union, but, as above stated, one of our near neighbors, Massachusetts, has recently established in the central part of the State, in a favorable location, some 800 or 900 feet above the sea level, a Pavilion Hospital for the reception of 200 patients in the first and most curable stage of the disease. This hospital has been recently constructed on admirable plans, from State funds, the property being purchased by the State for this purpose, and will be controlled by a Board of Directors appointed by the Governor. It is designed solely for the treatment of the needy poor. The Committee has collected information concerning the care of consumptives in foreign countries, a summary of which is as follows: FOREIGN INSTITUTIONS-CARE OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS. Switzerland, so far as public aid is concerned, is somewhat in advance of other countries. The Cities of Berne and Basle have each established a sanitorium for their phthisical poor. They have been so successful that eight other cities in that country have established similar institutions. Switzerland has also four sanitoria for pay cases. Austria has one sanitorium for pay cases. Through the labors of Prof. Schrötter, the aid of the Government has been promised, and he has been advised to further elaborate his plans. Norway has one private sanitorium, and quite recently the Parliament has taken steps to establish a second. France has private institutions to the number of six, but no Government plan to give aid to poor cases. The Empress of Germany and the crowned heads of Russia, Austria, Saxony, Sweden and Holland have all given sums of money and their patronage for the free care of phthisical poor. |