tion, leaving on October 1, 1899, 378-173 men and 205 womena gain of 56 during the year. This gain was limited entirely by the facilities for accommodating patients at the Colony. The pressure for new admissions is greater now than it has been at any time in the history of the Colony. There yet remains several hundred indigent epileptics in county institutions and indigent homes, to be provided for.

The death rate at the Colony during the past year was less than two per cent., and is accounted for by the fact that the colonists live in an isolated community and are obliged to lead regular and systematic lives.

The results of treatment at the Colony are summed up as follows:

FIRST.-In cures effected.

SECOND. In the very marked and general reduction in the number and violence of seizures.

THIRD. In the great physical improvement, often amounting to a complete physical regeneration in many cases.

FOURTH.—In the steady growth of the idea of colony life. FIFTH. In the material increase in the number and ability of colonists to become useful factors in the Colony's every day life.

In view of the fact that epilepsy is so infrequently cured, probably the most gratifying result of the treatment at the Colony during the past year was the great general improvement in such a large number of cases, an improvement so marked as to make persons previously regarded as hopeless or incurable able to take an active part in the daily life of the institution, and so lessen materially the cost of their maintenance.

The chief improvement during the past year has been the completion of a group of eleven buildings for women on the east side of Kishaqua Creek.

It was expected that these buildings would be ready for occupancy by October 1, 1899, but delay in installing the sewerage and water systems will postpone the opening of these buildings until early in 1900. This group of buildings was designed by Messrs. Carrere & Hasting, of New York City, and vary in capacity from 14 to 40 patients each. Only two of them, however, provide for 40 patients. These are for children. They contain

on the first floor ample provision for school work, for Sloyd work, for kindergarten work, for manual work; in fact, they contain everything that is needful for the education, amusement and scientific treatment of the epileptic child.

In appearance these buildings differ radically from the usual type of detached buildings seen at many institutions They are pure white in color, with green blinds and red roofs. A new group for men, comprising four buildings that will provide for from 24 to 28 patients each, is now going up on the Village Green. When all buildings now under way are completed, the capacity of the Colony will be for about 720 to 750 colonists.

The school work of the past year has been conducted with great care and with excellent results. It is diversified in character, embracing kindergarten work (chiefly for the young girls); night school, which numbers of the older patients attend; nature study; manual training; Sloyd instruction, and regular industrial and trades schools. Great stress is laid on the importance of the manual and industrial education of the epileptic; but this is not done at the expense of as much intellectual education as it is felt desirable to give this class of people.

LEGISLATION.

As in previous years, the Association made it its duty to carefully examine all bills introduced in either branch of the Legislature affecting the administration of charity. Important measures were referred to appropriate committees of the Association, and in a number of cases action was taken by the Board of Managers favoring the passage, amendment or defeat of various measures. The past year was a notable one as to the number of bills introduced relating to charitable institutions, and the persistency with which many of them were urged. A writer for the Charities Review has pointed out that, of a total number of nearly 4,000 printed bills, 217 related to charitable matters, or more than 5 per cent. of the whole number. These 217 bills include duplicates and reprints of amended bills. The total number of different propositions submitted to the Legislature relating to charities was about 100. It is quite impossible, within the limits of our report, to do more than

outline the action taken by the Association in regard to the more important measures. It should be said that, as a whole, the outcome of the legislative session was extremely favorable. Comparatively few bills relating to charities were passed, and these were, almost without exception, such as to commend themselves to an enlightened public sentiment. The undesirable bills, of which there were a large number, were almost uniformly defeated, and along with them, unfortunately, two or three which should have secured favorable action.

"Destitute Mothers" Bill.

Our reports of the last two years have told of the introduction of a bill known as the "Destitute Mothers' " Bill. In brief, the bill provided that children who had been committed to institutions might be returned to their parents by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and that thereafter the Comptroller should pay that Society, to be handed by it to the parents of the children, the same amount of money that the institutions had theretofore been receiving for them. The Society was to be empowered to take the children away from their parents, and return them to the institutions at any time. during their minority, if in the judgment of the Society the interests of the children would be benefited thereby. The measure was opposed in 1897 and 1898 by practically all the organized charities of New York City. However widely they differed upon many other subjects, they were agreed that this bill was unwise in principle, and would be harmful in operation. Their protests were successful.

In 1899, the bill was introduced in a modified form; it was made to relate only to children of widows, and to the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The Department of Public Charities, instead of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, was named as the authority which might return children from institutions to their parents and again remove them to institutions. Although in these particulars the bill was less objectionable than before, its essential feature, a disguised form of public out-door relief, was still retained. This is directly opposed to every sound principle of charity adminis

tration, reached after long years of experience. It was especially unnecessary in view of the recently established co-operation between the Charity Organization Society and other societies and the Department of Public Charities, in assisting worthy parents, who have applied for the commitment of their children on account of poverty, to continue to care for their children in their own homes. Aside from the unwisdom of the bill, the last argument that could possibly be brought forward in its favor was removed when this co-operation was made effective. The bill was opposed by the Association and by other charitable societies. It was reported adversely by the Senate Committee, and although the Senate disagreed with the adverse report and advanced the bill, it did not reach the order of final reading.

It is to be hoped that this proposition, prompted, undoubtedly, by benevolent motives, but certain to lead to most harmful results, having been defeated in three successive years, will cease to be a matter of contention before the Legislature.

Free Coal Bill.

Our last report contained an account of a bill having for its purpose the renewal of the free distribution of coal by the Department of Public Charities of New York City, a custom which had been discontinued by the provisions of the new Charter. Although, after careful consideration, the Legislature of 1898 refused to pass the measure, it was again introduced in the Legislature of 1899. In 1898 the bill succeeded in passing the Assembly, but was defeated in the Senate. In 1899 the bill was not even reported by the Assembly Committee, and a motion to discharge the Committee from further consideration of the measure failed of adoption.

The large amounts contributed by benevolent citizens and private organizations for the relief of the poor during the past winter, specially during the blizzard season, are further proof, if proof were needed, of the ability of private charity to meet the needs that arise for the material relief of the poor in their homes. To appropriate public funds for this purpose would be simply to discourage private charity, to set in motion a force that everywhere tends to diminish the self-respect of the poor and to encourage political corruption. The Association was un

able to appear at the hearing upon this bill, but sent a brief expressing its views in opposition.

Bills Passed.

Among the bills which received favorable consideration at the hands of the Legislature and the Executive were the following:

1. The bill repealing the special law under which the poor were cared for by the contract system in Montgomery County, already referred to, see page 4.

2. A bill conferring upon the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of New York City full authority in the matter of appropriations to private institutions. The Revised Constitution of 1894 prohibited the Legislature from thereafter requiring any county, city, town, or village to appropriate funds to any institution wholly or partly under private control, but each year a num ber of institutions sought to be added to the list to which appropriations were authorized, or to have the allowance granted to them increased. The Chairman of the Cities Committee of the Senate before whom these bills came, introduced a bill authorizing the City to appropriate funds to private institutions in its discretion, his purpose being to avoid the necessity of considering each year a large number of special bills relating to this subject. As introduced, the bill provided that the City might grant appropriations to institutions not already on the list, and might increase but should not diminish the sums heretofore authorized to be paid to private institutions. A communication was addressed to the introducer of the bill, setting forth the undesirability of making possible an unlimited increase of public subsidies, while at the same time prohibiting the city authorities from discontinuing or reducing the former appropriations, no matter what changes might occur in the management or character of any of the numerous institutions to which mandatory payments were made. The bill was amended so as to provide that the Board of Estimate and Apportionment might either increase or diminish the amounts formerly given. While this Association was in no way responsible for the introduction of this bill, or for its passage, it is of the opinion that the principle of the bill is correct