The Longview State Hospital. of Ohio. On March 9, 1838, an act was passed, entitled, "an act to provide for the safe-keeping of idiots, lunatics or insane persons, the management of their affairs and for other purposes," which required all persons found to be lunatics to be sent to the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, and repealing all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provision of said act. Thus the Cincinnati Hospital and Lunatic Asylum of Ohio ceased to be a state institution on March 9, 1838, although the name remained till March 11, 1861, when it was changed to Commercial Hospital of Cincinnati. The state afterwards built two additional hospitals for the insane, one at Dayton and the other in the northern part of Ohio, and on April 7, 1856, the legislature passed "an act to provide for the uniform government and better regulation of the lunatic asylums of the state and the care of idiots and insane," which divided the state into three districts, known as the Northern, Central and Southern Districts. Hamilton county, together with thirteen other counties, constituted the Southern District, the asylum for which was located at Dayton, but, on March 10, 1857, the legislature passed an act making Hamilton county a separate district for lunatic asylum purposes, and providing for the erection and government of an asylum therein, and that the commissioners shall cause all the insane of the county to be placed in such asylum when completed. The act further provided that the inmates of the asylum be supported and the salaries of its officers paid from "a fund consisting of all the money raised in the county of Hamilton by county tax for the support of idiots, lunatics and insane persons, and of such appropriations as shall be made by the state for the support of curable lunatics in said asylum, equal to the amount annually raised by taxation from the county of Hamilton for the support of lunatic asylums in the state." An act of April 28, 1873, which repealed the provision of the act of 1857, and substituted in its place a law which provided that Hamilton county should reccive, for the support of Longview Asylum, a sum which should bear such a proportion to the entire appropriations for the support of the curable insane of the state as the population of Hamilton county bears to the population of the state outside of said county. The injustice of the law of 1873 has been so apparent that no Genera! Assembly since 1880 has insisted on its enforcement. In the years. 1880 to 1883, both inclusive, the legislature appropriated $10,000 each year in excess of the amount due under the statute of 1873. Since 1883 the legislature has wholly disregarded the rule of 1873, and has appropriated to Longview gross sums, in the same manner that appropriations were made to the other asylums. The care of the insane in Hamilton county is an exception to the general system of the state, and for more than twenty years spasmodic 44 H. Y. B. •COTTAGE FOR LONGVIEW HOSPITAL CARTHAGE HAMILTON CO O.. •GUSTAVE W DRACH, ADCH'T CINTIQ BEDROOM HOSPITAL WARD The Longview State Hospital. efforts have been made on the part of the state to acquire the ownership and control of Longview, and to make it part of the state system, but to no practical end. A new building to accommodate two hundred and fifty patients is being constructed by and at the expense of the county of Hamilton. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF LONGVIEW HOSPITAL. The Board of Directors of Longview consists of five members, two of whom are appointed by the Governor, and one each by the Common Pleas Court, the Probate Judge and the County Commissioners. They hold office for five years, and are not removable except for cause, which gives the board a fixed tenure, and makes it free from sudden political changes. |