jugton Hospital for Foundlings has been in operation about ten years, during which time it has had 538 inmates and has placed 108 children in families. The number admitted during 1896 was 66 and the number of deaths was 70. The asylum admits only white children, and no child remains in the institution more than six years, the majority of them being adopted between the ages of 2 and 3 years. On being questioned as to the apparent high rate of mortality, the representative of the asylum stated that the mortality amounts to about 70 per cent of the total number received, which, he claimed, was a low rate for a foundling asylum: in many it ranges up to 90 per cent'.

According to the testimony the hospital authorities maintain that "the great good done by the hospital is in the adoption of the chil dren." The adoption committee, made up of three members of the board of trustees, allow persons to come to the hospital and select a child to adopt. Inquiry is made as to the character of the applicants, and if the result is satisfactory the indenture follows. Out of the 108 children adopted the authorities know of but two instances where the child was ill used. Some of the children find homes as far away as Kansas. Not knowing who are the parents of the children, the hospital authorities have no means of knowing whether or not the children are restored to their parents, and there being no system of visitation there is of course no definite knowledge as to the welfare of the adopted children. It was claimed that the foundling hospital as thus conducted was a necessary adjunct of the State, for the reason that it prevents infanticide.

St. Ann's Infant Asylum takes children up to the age of 6 years It receives both white and colored children, and receives children left at the door in baskets, and also those brought by the police. During 1896 the daily average number of children cared for was 128, and percentage of deaths was 56.25. In the testimony of Dr. Bovee it is stated that at St. Ann's about 35 per cent of the deaths are of children under 1 month, and about 50 per cent are of children from 2 to 9 months." "They usually die in the first few months, or in summer time, from diseases peculiar to the weather. Another thing," Dr. Bovee continues, "you know in these institutions you can not give a child any food so strengthening and healthy as a mother's breast milk. It is pretty hard to get a valuable substitute for breast milk, and in these institutions they have to be fed with artificial food, though they do get wet nurses and put children out in the heated term with wet nurses, and to that is particularly attributed the small mortality they have."

"Then, as to visiting children," says Dr. Bovee, "that is limited of course to the children who have been placed out with nurses, and they are visited two or three times a week. If they are not doing well, they are taken away from the woman who has charge of them. They have,

so far as they can, the physicians of the hospital go out to see the children when they become sick."

The Board of Children's Guardian's during 1896 cared for 52 children under 2 years of age, of whom but 14 died. That is to say, where the Washington Foundling Asylum lost 218.75 per cent of the daily average of inmates, and St. Ann's lost 56.25 per cent, the Board of Children's Guardians lost but 35.9 per cent. It is maintained by those who favor the asylum system that the difference in mortality rates is accounted for by the fact that the Board of Children's Guardians come into the possession of children who have reached the age of 2 or 3 months or more, and hence are past the age of greatest mortality. To this it is answered that the figures for the Board are limited to children under 2 years, while those for the hospitals cover children up to the age of 6 years; and also that five-sixths of the wards of the board are colored children, the annual death rate among whom in Washington is 13.86 as against 5.74 among white children under the age of 5

years.

The closer the matter is studied the stronger the argument becomes that the plan adopted by the Board of Children's Guardians of placing children in homes with nurses results in a diminished mortality. This opinion finds support in Dr. Bovee's statement, quoted above, that the low rate of mortality at St. Ann's as compared with the Washington Hospital for Foundlings is to be found in the extent to which the St. Ann's children are placed out with nurses. The difference between the rate at St. Ann's and with the board is doubtless due largely to the fact that the board keeps no children in an institution. Dr. Bovee's explanation and that of the board seem to agree, and experience in other communities is in favor of the boarding-out plan.

Another consideration is the fact that the rapid growth of Washington, the hot streets, and the bad air of a city in the summer time causes great suffering among children in institutions, and strong appeals are put forth to obtain from charitable people money to supply summer homes for the little ones. There are already several of these summer annexes to asylums, and there is a strong demand for several others; so that no city hospital for children is complete without its country home.

The experience of the Massachusetts State Board of Lunacy and Charity confirms the results reached by the Board of Children's Guardians. In Massachusetts during 1896, 768 children were boarded out with hired nurses, medical attendance being furnished, and of this number 154, or 20.05 per cent, died. In South Australia the same system results in a death rate of but 15.62 per cent. And yet the testimony of the officers of the Washington Hospital for Foundlings is that 90 per cent is not an unusual average for the institution, and that 70 per cent is low..

Another point brought out in the testimony has a distinctly moral bearing. At the Washington Hospital for Foundlings there is as a rule no knowledge of the parents, and seemingly as a matter of policy no attempt is made to discover the parentage. At St. Ann's, according to the testimony of Mr. M. I. Weller,' the Sisters are perfectly cognizant of the parentage of one-half the children. Indeed, many of the children were half orphans, temporarily placed in the asylum. This statement is confirmed by the report of the asylum, which shows that in 1896 no fewer than 50 children were returned to their parents or friends. The Board of Children's Guardians causes an official examination to be made with the idea of discovering the parents of the children, with a view to make them provide for their offspring if possible.

In other cities, notably in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and Buffalo, the work for foundlings has received a new direction and an enlarged scope by including the mother with the child. It happens often in Washington that girls come here from the country to be delivered of their children in a hospital; the mother and child are turned from that shelter after a stay of three weeks; the child is abandoned on the door of a foundling asylum, and the woman goes back to come again. The theory of the foundling asylum is that secrecy gives the woman a better chance for future right living. In the cities above mentioned, the new movement is based upon the idea that the best way both to save the life of the child and to restore the mother to ways of right living is by obtaining work for the mother in a home where she will be allowed to keep the child. So far as the committee can ascertain, there is no organized effort in the District to carry on this kind of work, and in this respect this community is neglecting a most productive field for good."

In view of experience in this class of work elsewhere the committee believe that the best solution of the problem is to be found in a system that will enable the mother and the child to find a home together. This result is difficult, but not impossible, to attain. The report of the New York State Charities Aid Association for 1896 shows that:

During the past year, 297 situations have been provided for homeless mothers with their babies, as against 277 situations provided in 1895 and 185 in 1894, making the total number of situations provided by the agency since its establishment 759. The number of new cases received by the agency and, after an investigation of their circumstances, provided with situations during the year was 142. At the beginning of the year there were under our supervision 163 women (with their babies) who had already been provided with situations. These, with those who have since been provided for, make a total of 310 mothers and 310 children under our supervision during the year. No mother has died, and of the 310 children, only 3 have died; a mortality rate of a little less than 1 per cent.

This statement is made with a knowledge of the fact that the Florence Crittenton Hope and Help Mission aims to keep the mother and child together, and that the Woman's Christian Association receives women with their children.

The total cost of maintaining the agency during the year was $1,871.21, being an average cost of $6.03 for each of the 310 mothers and their babies under our supervision during the year. The expense to the city of supporting a mother and child in an institution varies from $354 to $380 per year, and a very large proportion of the women placed by us could, under the legislation and customs which prevailed until very recently, have been supported with their children as public dependents. The economic value of this agency is thus apparent.

The women were received from the New York Infant Asylum, the Department of Public Charities, the Nursery and Child's Hospital, and from various like institutions. Of the 142 new cases provided for during the year, 36 were young unmarried women with their first children, and were greatly in need of care and protection. The others were destitute widows and deserted wives. Of the children, 62 were less than a year old, 39 between 1 and 2 years of age, and 41 were more than 2 years old. Of the 297 situations, 200 were in the State of New York, 86 in New Jersey, 10 in Connecticut, and 1 in Vermont.

The report continues:

At the beginning of the year there were under supervision 163 women, with their babies, who had already been provided with situations; these, with those who have since been provided for, make a total of 310 mothers and 310 children under supervision during the year.

No mother has died, and of the 310 children only 3 have died-an unusually low mortality rate-a little less than 1 per cent.

The results of our work for these mothers and babies are as varied as are the circumstances and histories of those who seek our assistance. The primary object of the work is to strengthen the tie between the mother and the child, thereby preventing either from becoming a public charge, saving, in many cases, the life of the child, and protecting the mother from the irreparable injury that would follow the abandonment of her child.

From all these points of view, the results of the work of the past three years must be pronounced extremely encouraging. In cases of deserted wives and women whose husbands were temporarily out of employment, we have often tided them over periods of temporary difficulty, and they have been able later to return to their parents, relatives, or husbands. In these cases temporary help was the best help possible and prevented in many cases the children from becoming permanent public charges. It is found in nearly all cases that giving the mother this opportunity of caring for her child the first year or two of its life results in her keeping it permanently, though not always in a situation under our supervision. The larger the number of women who thus become able to support themselves and their children under normal conditions, and without the assistance of any charitable institution, the better is the work.

HOMES FOR THE AGED.

The support of the aged in the District of Columbia, aside from that done at the Washington Asylum, has been carried on mainly as private charities. The Louise Home, established by the late W. W. Corcoran, and amply endowed by him, is undoubtedly one of the finest institutions of the kind in the United States. Up to the limit of its capacity— about fifty persons-the home freely makes ample provision for every

necessity of the inmates excepting the item of clothing. The Methodist Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church, and probably other churches, have homes for the aged, which are supported as private benevolences. The Roman Catholic Church maintains the Home for the Aged, which occupies property valued at $260,000, of which sum $55,000 came from Congressional appropriations. No appropriations have been made for the past thirteen years. The Bruen Home, established in 1896, does a small work, involving an expense of less than $1.000 a year, the support being drawn from private sources. The Aged Woman's Home reports a cost of maintenance for 1896 of 8762, of which sum $300 came from Congressional appropriations. The National Association for Destitute Colored Women and Children provide for about ten aged persons, and the Woman's Christian Association offers accommodations to about the same number. In the case of the latter institution, an entrance fee of $100 is required. Both of the latter institutions are largely supported by the District.

In view of the very limited amount of the work done by Governmentaided institutions and the questionable policy of providing accommodations for the few, while the many are compelled to seek the asylum, the committee recommends that

No appropriations shall be made for homes for the aged, nor shall any institution receiving public aid admit aged persons; and the board of charities, if created, shall make an examination into the cases of all such aged persons as may now be in institutions supported wholly or in part at public expense, with the view of ascertaining whether such persons, if properly public charges, may not be removed to the asylum.

WORK AMONG WOMEN.

THE WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.

The Women's Christian Association was organized in 1869 and occupies property valued at $53,600, of which sum $29,138.33 came from the District or the Government treasury. During the year 1896 the institution received $4,000 from Congressional appropriations, $50 from its endowment fund, $2,616.08 from boarders, and only $531.76 from private sources. Practically, therefore, the institution is supported by the District.

The work of the association includes the care of the aged, of women temporarily out of work, the care of fallen women, and the care of infants. Six old women, by the payment of $100 each, have been received for life. Three hundred and eighty-five adults and 21 infants were received during the year. The same number of adults and 19 of the infants were discharged during the year, leaving as the population of the institution on January 1, 1897, 56 adults and 6 infants. Woman who need a temporary home after being in a hospital or while seeking temporary employment, also women who come to Washington after a