The Standing Committees of the Board are as follows:

Committee of General Visitation and Inspection: Mr. Pratt, Mr. NOURSE, Mr. JOHNSON.

Committee on State Adult Poor: Dr. HITCHCOCK, Mr. NOURSE, Miss CURTIS, Mr. JOHNSON.

Committee on State Minor Wards: Mrs. CODMAN, Mr. DoNNELLY, Mr. LINCOLN, Mr. PRATT, Dr. PULLMAN.

Committee on Inspection of Almshouses: Mr. NOURSE, Mr. PRATT, Miss CURTIS.

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

On January 6, 1900, Mr. Stephen C. Wrightington, Superintendent of State Adult Poor, died. For nearly forty years he had been in the employment of the Commonwealth. He possessed an unusual knowledge of the laws regarding the administration of State and municipal charities, and was everywhere esteemed, both for his remarkable fitness for the duties imposed upon him, and for his faithful discharge of them throughout his career in the public service. In his death the State lost a trusted and most useful servant and officer.

The present Superintendent of State Adult Poor is Joshua F. Lewis, M.D., who has been in the employment of the Board since 1887, the greater part of the time as one of its Deputy Superintendents; his deputies are Charles A. Colcord, in charge of the in-door poor, and George B. Tufts, in charge of the out-door poor. The Superintendent of State Minor Wards is William P. Derby, M.D.; his deputies are Bertha W. Jacobs, in charge of the older children, and Sarah M. Crawford, M.D., in charge of the infants. John D. Wells is Clerk and Auditor of the Board. In addition to these officers, the Board employs a paid force of fifty-nine persons, of whom thirty-one are men, and twenty-eight are women. The Board also avails itself of the gratuitous services of about eighty auxiliary women visitors, acting under the direction of the Superintendent of State Minor Wards. The names of the employees of the Board, with their several occupations and their salaries, and also the names of the auxiliary visitors, will be found in later pages of this Report.

THE STATE ADULT Poor.

The State adult poor under the supervision of the Board are of two classes, viz., the in-door poor, or the inmates of the State institutions; and the out-door poor, or the unsettled poor in the cities and towns whose expenses in case of sickness, temporary aid, transportation, and burial are payable by the Commonwealth.

The In-Door Poor.

The State institutions for adult poor under the supervision of the Board are the State Hospital, and the State Farm at Bridgewater. These institutions are under the immediate direction of a Board of seven Trustees, appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Council, "two of whom must be women," and whom the Statutes require "to make all rules and regulations for the government of the same, subject to the approval of the governor and council." (Acts of 1884, chapter 297, section 2.) It is also provided (Acts of 1891, chapter 299) that "the board of trustees shall hold monthly meetings at either of the institutions under their charge, shall annually on or before the first day of November report the condition of such institutions to the governor and council, and shall appoint a superintendent of the state hospital, and a superintendent of the state farm, who shall respectively hold office during the pleasure of the board, and whose compensation shall be fixed by the trustees with the approval of the governor and council. All other officers and employees shall be appointed by the superintendents subject to the approval of the trustees, who shall fix the compensation in each case." By chapter 333 of the Acts of 1900 it is provided that "The name of the state almshouse at Tewksbury is hereby changed to State Hospital."

The Trustees are as follows: J. White Belcher, of Randolph, Chairman; Payson W. Lyman, of Fall River, Secretary; Sarah D. Fiske, of Malden; Leonard Huntress, M.D., of Lowell; Jacob H. Hecht, of Boston; Anna F. Prescott, of Boston; Cecil F. P. Bancroft, of Andover.

Average net weekly cost per capita, $2.03.

Classification of discharges: Deaths, 385; removals, 2,526.

Number of maternity cases during year: Confinements, 93; living births, 86.

During the year, 4,085 people were cared for. The smallest number present at any one time was 1,090, June 29; and

the largest number 1,436, March 5; the weekly average was 1,250. There were treated in the hospitals 2,744 patients; of these, 2,094 were medical cases, and 650 surgical. There were 298 cases of phthisis, 112 of influenza, 112 of syphilis, 45 of malaria, 8 of typhoid fever, 7 of scarlet-fever, 7 of whooping-cough, 3 of diphtheria. Of the 385 deaths, 114 were from phthisis; 83 of those who died were over sixty years of age. age. There were 166 surgical operations, from the results of which 2 died. Outside of the hospital department there were 997 cases, - 728 medical, and 269 surgical. Of the whole number of inmates admitted during the year, 911 were born in Ireland, 559 in Massachusetts, 329 in the British Provinces, 151 in England, 145 in New York, 89 in Italy, 53 in Russia, 48 in Scotland, 26 in Austria, 24 in Germany, 23 in Poland, 20 in Finland, 10 in Syria, 9 in Denmark, 7 in Wales, 7 in West Indies, 7 in France, 7 in Greece, 7 in Portugal, 6 in Turkey, 6 in the Azores, 5 in Armenia, 5 in Arabia, 4 in China, 2 in Western Islands, 2 in Porto Rico, 2 in Australia, 2 in Belgium, 1 in Hungary, 1 in Africa, 1 in India, 1 in Bermuda, 1 in Spain, 1 in Cuba, 1 at sea, and the rest in various parts of the United States. In the house department 24,458 articles were made, and in the asylum wards 22,648. The training school for nurses has completed five years of its existence; 64 lectures were given during the year, and 13 persons received diplomas.

The most recent addition to this institution is the new consumptives' hospital, for which the Legislature of 1898 voted an appropriation of $50,000.. The hospital was completed during the past year, and patients were first admitted to it October 1, 1900. It now contains about eighty inmates. Such a general interest has been manifested in the radical departure from old methods in the care and treatment of phthisis, that an extended description of this valuable adjunct to the hospital plant seems desirable.

The consumptives' hospital is situated a quarter of a mile from the other buildings of the institution, on a sandy knoll entirely surrounded by groves of pine. The open area about it is very extensive, giving opportunity for an abundance of direct sunshine and ample circulation of air; and three broad vistas opening through the pines reveal distant

views across the meadows. A broad, shady, well-graded road, extending through the pine trees, encircles the building, and leads to the four different entrances, forming a boundary between the open area and the groves beyond. In these groves the patients will find comfort and shelter during the summer months, and protection also from the cold blasts of winter.

The hospital is constructed with a cobblestone basement, with granite trimmings, and a brick superstructure, with copper trimmings; and is made more attractive by large glass sun-rooms. It is surmounted by a tall copper cupola, enclosing an iron smokestack, which also serves as an outlet to the ventilating flue extending from the basement to the top. There are accommodations for one hundred men, classified in four different wards, with twenty-five beds in each; two of the wards being devoted to the early or incipient cases of phthisis, and two to the chronic or more advanced. The central or main portion of the building faces south, and from either side run two long wings in a south-east and south-west direction respectively. This arrangement permits of sunshine all day in both of these wings, and against the outside walls in these warm enclosures the patients, sitting in easychairs on a concrete floor, will take their open-air treatment. The centre of the building is three stories in height, and contains in the basement a boiler-room, store-rooms, and ventilating and heating compartments and devices. The first floor contains four halls or entrances, one opening from the south, for the use of officers and visitors; one on the north, opening into the kitchen, where all supplies are received; one on the east, an entrance and fire-proof stairway for incipient cases; and a similar one on the west, for chronic cases. There are also a corridor leading from the east wing to the west wing, two supply rooms, and two diningrooms, one for each ward on the lower floor, - and a large central kitchen. An inside stairway, encircling the smokestack and ventilating section, leads from the kitchen to the dining-room above. The floor of the kitchen is of red quarry tile. The dining-rooms have open fire-places, and each accommodates twenty-five patients. The inmates' stairways are built in brick wells, with tile floors laid on brick arches.