appropriated $12,000 for improved drainage and water supply at the Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. Within the past three years $35,000 was granted for improvements at the Soldiers' Orphans' Home. In addition to these appropriations, the sum of $37,000 has been granted for improvements at the Institution for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth. According to the latest available official report, the number of inmates at the Topeka Insane Asylum was 781; Osawatomie Insane Asylum, 1,026; Institution for Deaf and Dumb, 261; Institution for the Blind, 98; Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, 132; Soldiers' Orphans' Home, 175.

A prepared statement of expenditures by the State for these various institutions and for all charitable and benevolent purposes during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1899, shows the following totals: Blind Asylum, $19,998; Deaf and Dumb Asylum, $42,430.22; Idiotic and Imbecile Asylum, $52,614.82; two insane asylums, $314,686.09; Soldiers' Orphans' Home, $30,342.62; State Soldiers' Home, $44,857.10; maintenance of destitute insane, $223,130.40.

The

Included in the totals for the two insane asylums is $37,737.15 expended for new buildings and permanent improvement, and also included in the total for idiotic and imbecile asylum is $20,846.75 for buildings. The item for hospitals and homes is an appropriation of $700 each to 16 different private hospitals and homes in the State. item for maintenance of destitute insane is an appropriation made by the last Legislature directly to the various counties for the care and maintenance of insane persons cared for by the counties because there was no room for them in the State asylums. They were allowed 50 cents per day per person so cared for, and the accounts covered a period of from one to four years back. Kentucky.-There were 317 inmates in the almshouse on the first of the year; received during year, 240; number at close of year, 323.

During the year the Children's Free Hospital cared for 117 afflicted children; received at City Hospital during the year, 1,686 patients; remain ing at close of fiscal year, 136.

The Kentucky Institute for the Blind received during the year 112 pupils in the white department; in the colored department, 24; total, 136. This institution was extensively remodeled, adapting it thoroughly for its special work.

In the Institute for Feeble-minded Children an increase was noted in the number of inmates over the previous year. Twenty were admitted during the year. At the close of the fiscal year there were 134 inmates.

The three insane asylums of the State showed at the beginning of the year 2,650 patients. Admissions during the year, 778; present at close of fiscal year, 2,705.

Louisiana. The State appropriations for charitable institutions for the current fiscal year include the following: Blind, $10,000 for one institution; deaf and dumb, $18,000 for one institution; insane, $100,000 for one institution; hospitals, $108,000 for two institutions; Soldiers' Home, $17,940; Lepers' Home, $7,000.

Shakespeare Almshouse shelters 125 old people of both sexes; Faith Home for Aged Colored Widows, 18; Dames Hospitalities, 29 paupers of both sexes; Memorial Home for Young Women, 34; Touro Infirmary, 29.

About 2,000 orphans are sheltered in sectarian asylums.

The Charity Hospital of New Orleans has a daily average of 622 inmates.

The State School for Deaf and Dumb in Baton Rouge takes care of 90 inmates.

The State Insane Asylum at Jackson contains about 1,200 insane persons, both male and female. Maine. Very little legislation was enacted in the last Legislature under the heading of charities and correction. Destitute children are well cared for in the State. The sick and injured are carefully provided for in the various city hospitals. The Maine General Hospital is in a prosperous condition, as are the other hospitals of the State, being supported in part by the State, but receiving also liberal donations from time to time.

The blind are cared for out of State institutions. Deaf-mutes are cared for in the main School for Deaf-mutes, which is a most excellent institution, situated in Portland, and supported by the State. Feeble-minded children are cared for in the Massachusetts School for Feebleminded. The insane asylum is receiving increased attention every year by the Legislature and those interested in the care of this class of unfortunates. Its nominal capacity is 600; daily average number, 727.

The total receipts of the Maine General Hospital were, in 1898, $58,209; total expenditures, $51,404; number of beds, 146; daily average number of beds occupied, 91; number of in-patients, 1,335; number of out-patients, -; cost per inpatient per day, $1.49.

Maryland. Interest in hospital provision is growing in Maryland. The Railroad Young Men's Christian Association Hospital, opened Nov. 28, 1898, is now in operation at Hagerstown. A small charity hospital has been opened at Cambridge, the State contributing $1,500. The sum of $10,000 has also been given, with a comfortable house and 13 acres of ground, for the Hospital for Consumptives, situated about 6 miles from Baltimore. Provision has now been made for 50 insane women at the Springfield Insane Hospital, until recently used for male patients only. The Henry Watson Children's Aid Society takes special interest in wayward and dependent children.

Baltimore City Insane Hospital has a nominal capacity of 450; daily average number, 425; Hospital for the Insane, Catonsville: nominal capacity, 450; daily average number, 515; Mount Hope Retreat, Baltimore: nominal capacity, 570; daily average number, ; Sheppard Asylum, Baltimore: nominal capacity, 150; daily average number, 81.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, is a general hospital. Total receipts, $200,964; total expenditures, $200,964; number of beds, 320; daily average number of beds occupied, 241; number of in-patients, 3,633; number of out-patients, 64,273; cost per in-patient per day, $1.55.

Massachusetts.-The State appropriations for charitable institutions, 1898, include the following: Blind, $30,000; deaf and deaf-mutes, $60,000; insane, including dipsomaniacs and epileptics, $416,492.32; feeble-minded, $48,000; indigent and neglected children, $105,000; hospitals for consumptives and eye and ear, $45,000; paupers, $235,047.20; almshouses, $189,230.

The Legislature of 1898 passed an act providing for the establishment of a State Board of Insanity, to which were transferred most of the powers and duties relating to the insane, hitherto belonging to the State Board of Lunacy and Charity. The last-named board has become the State Board of Charity, and has the supervision of the State sane poor and the State minor wards, together with all pauper statistical work, and the

investigation of settlements of both the sane and the insane poor.

The Legislature has also passed an act providing that whenever a woman shall be committed to any insane hospital or asylum the magistrate committing her shall, unless she is accompanied by her father, husband, brother, or son, designate a woman who shall be an attendant or one of the attendants to accompany her to the hospital or asylum of commitment."

The new State Hospital for Epileptics, which was opened nearly a year ago, has already more than its complement of numbers; and the Legislature has appropriated money for the erection of a new building, which, when completed, will, with the other buildings, enable the trustees to provide for about 350 patients, and secure a better classification of the inmates than can be arranged for at present. The Legislature has also changed the age of commitment to this institution, so that, instead of providing for the care and treatment of adults only, the hospital now receives patients of fourteen years of age and upward.

The State Board of Charity has for two successive years recommended that all dependent children that is, those who become a public charge because they are orphans or because their parents are too poor to maintain them-as well as juvenile offenders and neglected children, should be cared for, maintained, and controlled by the State, irrespective of the question of their local settlement. The effect of the law would be to provide better care and treatment, on the whole, for the children, and, while it would impose an additional burden on the Commonwealth, would relieve many of the small towns of considerable expense. A bill embodying this recommendation was recently presented to the Legislature, and was favorably reported on by the committee; but differences of opinion arose with regard to the wording of certain clauses of the bill, and the whole matter has been referred to the next general court.

The number of poor in State institutions, 1898, was 1,278; in local almshouses, 3,796; in families, 435; total, 5,509.

Of destitute children, State charges in families, there were 1,728; town charges in institutions, 584; town charges in families, 439; total, 2,751.

The number of deaf in institutions is 313; blind, 251.

In

In hospitals and asylums, according to the latest available report, there are 6,969 inmates; boarded out from hospitals, 106; in local almshouses, 1,214; town charges in families, 98; in school for feeble-minded, 602; total, 8,989. addition to the above, there are 74 sane inmates of the Massachusetts Hospital for Epileptics and 190 inmates of the Massachusetts Hospital for Dipsomaniacs and Inebriates.

Boston Insane Hospital has a nominal capacity of 526; daily average number, 480; Danvers Lunatic Hospital: nominal capacity, 1,000; daily average number, 871; Hospital for Mental Diseases, Brookline: nominal capacity, 25; Medfield Insane Hospital: nominal capacity, Northampton Lunatic Hospital: nominal capacity, 550; daily average number, 544; Receptacle for the Insane, Ipswich: nominal capacity, -: State Almshouse, Tewksbury: nominal capacity, 1,300; daily average number, 1,292; Taunton Lunatic Hospital: nominal capacity, - —; Westborough Insane Hospital: nominal capacity, 625; daily average number, 561; Worcester Insane Asylum: nominal capacity, 400; daily average number,

428; Worcester Insane Hospital: nominal capacity, 900; daily average number, 871.

Boston City Hospital is a general hospital. Total receipts, $374,000; total expenditures, $374,194; number of beds, 768; daily average number of beds occupied, 676; number of in-patients, 11,634; number of out-patients, 22,712; cost per in-patient per day, $1.40.

The City Hospital, Worcester, is also a general hospital. Total receipts, $72,727; total expenditures, $64,229; number of beds, 140; daily average number of beds occupied, 95; number of in-patients, 2,218; number of out-patients, 2,205; cost per in-patient per day, $1.55.

Michigan. The sums expended by the State in behalf of charitable institutions for the two years ending June 30, 1898, were as follow: Blind, $25,200; deaf and dumb, $91,635.69; insane, $88,430.15; dependent children, $66,766.98; feebleminded, $75,503.20.

Two laws have been enacted by the Legislature of 1899 relating to charitable and correctional matters-namely, one prohibiting nonincorporated societies, associations, organizations, or persons from receiving, maintaining, or placing out minor children in homes; and one providing for State supervision of, and the reporting to the State Board of Corrections and Charities by all incorporated societies the whole or a part of the business of which is to receive, maintain, or place out minor children in homes.

There is now pending in the Legislature a bill providing for State care of defective dependent children. The statistical information here given is of the date of June 30, 1898, the close of the last biennial period of Michigan:

Poor in poorhouses number 6,065; destitute children, at the State Public School, 159; under control in homes, 1,304; total, 1,463; blind, in Michigan School for the Blind, 109; deaf-mutes, in Michigan School for Deaf, 398; feeble-minded children, in Michigan Home for Feeble-minded and Epileptic, 201.

The number of insane in State asylums is 4,217; in county homes, 145; in jails, 13; in private asylums, 226; total, 4,601.

The insane asylums and hospitals include the Asylum for Dangerous and Criminal Insane, Ionia: nominal capacity, 305; daily average number, 230; Asylum for the Insane, Kalamazoo : nominal capacity, 1,254; daily average number, 1,244; Eastern Michigan Asylum, Pontiac: nominal capacity, 950; daily average number, 1,059; Northern Michigan Asylum, Traverse City: nominal capacity, 1,000; daily average number, 994; St. Joseph's Retreat, Dearborn: nominal capacity,

Grace Hospital, Detroit, is a general hospital. Total receipts, $36.232; total expenditures, $36.347; number of beds, 128; daily average number of beds occupied, 56; number of in-patients, 975: number of out-patients, 2,964; cost per in-patient per day, $1.76.

Minnesota. The sums expended by the State in behalf of charitable institutions for the year ending July 31, 1899, were as follow: Blind, $21 ̧300; deaf and dumb, $49,400; insane, $541,400; dependent children, $37,581.75; for feeble-minded, $105,000; for other asylums, $140,000; for crippled and deformed children, $4,000.

The most important legislation in the field of charity enacted during the recent session of the Legislature was the provision made for additional care of the chronic insane. Two State asylums were authorized, each to be located on a large farm, each to have two buildings with a capacity of at least 100 inmates, the cost of construction

and equipment for each building not to exceed $31,250. This legislation was a compromise between the advocates of the State hospitals and the advocates of county asylums similar to those existing in Wisconsin.

There is at present an overcrowding in each of the three Minnesota hospitals, although a detached ward has recently been completed, increasing the capacity at Fergus Falls by 200. A bill providing for a detention ward for the insane in the hospitals of the three largest cities was favorably considered, and came near passing. By a new law the superintendent and the secretary of the board of trustees for the State hospitals for insane now have a right to discharge patients from the three respective hospitals.

The deportation of nonresident insane has been successful, and the Legislature increased the appropriation for the execution of that law.

The State Board of Corrections and Charities is made responsible for the execution of the new law to restrict the importation of dependent children. It is not the purpose of this law to prohibit such importation, but to compel importing societies to conform to the same rules that are observed by Minnesota institutions and societies in investigating the homes and supervising the children whom they place. The age of children over whom the child-placing societies may ac quire absolute guardianship has been increased from two to ten years.

The probate courts of Minnesota may now give the entire guardianship of children to volunteer institutions which have the approval of the State Board of Corrections and Charities, but this does not involve any payment on the part of the State to the institutions thus acquiring guardianship. Truant officers may be appointed by the school boards.

On nomination of the State Board of Corrections and Charities the district judges are to appoint probation officers for a period of two years. The probation law is modeled after the Massachusetts law, except that it applies simply to juveniles; and, after sentence is pronounced, it may be suspended pending satisfactory conduct instead of being postponed, as in Massachusetts.

District poorhouses may now be established in counties having a joint population of at least 35,000, the property and equipment to be paid by the interested counties in proportion to their assessed valuation. The poorhouses are to be managed by the chairmen of the boards of commissioners in the counties interested, and payment is to be made in proportion to the number of days' board furnished inmates sent by the respective counties.

The State Board of Corrections and Charities was given power to condemn lockups analogous to power which it has had for many years to condemn county jails. The condition of lockups has greatly improved since the passage of a law in 1895 obliging towns and cities to obtain the approval of the State Board of Corrections and Charities before lockups can be erected or extensively repaired.

The Odd Fellows are erecting a widows' and orphans' home at Northfield, Minn. This is the first orphanage established in a number of years. The poor in poorhouses number 495; destitute children in State Public School, 233; sick and injured in hospitals, 898; blind in School for Blind, 70; deaf-mutes in School for Deaf, 233; feeble-minded children, 643.

There are three State insane hospitals, with over 3,000 inmates; none in jails or poorhouses.

Fergus Falls State Hospital for the Insane has a nominal capacity of 1,200; daily average number, 1,011; Rochester State Hospital: nominal capacity, 1,000; daily average number, 1,103; St. Peter State Hospital: nominal capacity, 650; daily average number, 977.

Mississippi. No official statement procurable. It is learned from unofficial sources that the East Mississippi Insane Asylum, Meridian, has a nominal capacity of 300; daily average number, 260; also that the State Lunatic Asylum, Hinds County, has a nominal capacity of 825; daily average number, 825.

Missouri. The Missouri General Assembly of 1899 passed a bill to establish an insane asylum in southeast Missouri with an appropriation of $150,000. This will make the fifth institution for the care of the insane in this State. A bill was also passed establishing a colony for feebleminded and epileptics. At least it had met the approval of the Senate at the latest report.

The cornerstone of the Provident Association Building, to cost $70,000, was laid a few months ago. During the five years of Dr. Finney's administration the methods and management of this charity have been revolutionized, modern ideas and appliances have been introduced, new industries added, until now the Provident Association takes front rank in quality and quantity of organized charity work in this country. Investigation precedes relief. During the last year 12,608 cases were investigated. Having no municipal outdoor relief, about 75 per cent. of all that is given comes from the St. Louis Provident Association.

Poor in poorhouses number 4,000, including St. Louis Poorhouse. Destitute children, 2,500 in private institutions; 400 a year cared for by St. Ann's, Bethesda, and Colored Orphans' Home. Sick and injured, 215 soldiers in the State Federal and Confederate Homes at St. James and Higginsville; 823 in the Female and City Hospitals at St. Louis; 43,963 cases treated at the City Dispensary in St. Louis in 1898. Blind in the State, 2,456-about one half of these under the school age, twenty-four years; in the State Blind School in St. Louis, 106 pupils. Deaf-mutes in the State, 2,003; 350 pupils in the State School at Fulton. Feeble-minded children in the State, 5,000; 1,600 within the limit of the school age.

There are 3,600 inmates in the asylums at St. Joseph, Nevada, St. Louis, Fulton, and on the poor farms.

The insane asylums and hospitals include St. Louis Insane Asylum: nominal capacity, 300; daily average number, 516; State Lunatic Asylum, No. 2, St. Joseph: nominal capacity, -State Lunatic Asylum, No. 3, Nevada: nominal capacity, 760; daily average number, 628.

Kansas City Hospital is a general hospital. Total receipts, $35,000; total expenditures, $18,261; number of beds, 240; daily average number of beds occupied, 145; number of in-patients, 1,842; number of out-patients, -; cost per inpatient per day, 35 cents.

Montana. The most important legislation of the last Legislature in the field of charities and correction was the establishment of a home for feeble-minded and a law permitting children to be taken from inhuman parents. A home for children until they can be adopted by worthy people has been established.

The poor in poorhouses are pretty well cared for in most counties; destitute children are cared for in Orphans' Home; sick and injured are cared for in hospitals. For blind and deaf-mutes there is one school.

The insane are cared for at State expense in an excellent manner at Warm Springs, Deer Lodge County, Mont. Its nominal capacity is 450; daily average number, 350.

Nebraska.-The State appropriations for charitable institutions for the two years ending November, 1898, were as follow: Blind, $45,775; deaf and dumb, $55,250; insane, $366,895; feebleminded youth, $77,400; Soldiers' Home, $93,350, with 325 inmates; Home for Friendless, $31,500. Among bills passed by the last Legislature was one to provide for the control and maintenance of the Home for the Friendless as a State institution. A bill was introduced to create a State board of charities. The bill was framed so as to be in harmony with the State Constitution. So much sympathy was expressed that for a considerable time the friends of the bill expected it to carry. It failed, however; but the friends are determined to succeed, and are confident this measure will be carried at the next Legislature, two years hence.

The aged poor are largely provided for in county almshouses, and the number has greatly increased of late years in large centers of population because of the increase in the number of the insane. Seven old persons are now being provided for by the State in the Home for the Friendless.

Most of the dependent children of the State are provided for by private associations. One State institution, the Home for the Friendless, has 38 children. This is also a placing-out agency, and children are only kept temporarily. Some of the larger counties have the care of a few dependent children.

No provision is made for sick and injured by the State. There is only one county hospital, and it is located at Omaha. Most of the hospitals are supported by churches.

There is one State institution for the blind, with 79 inmates.

There is one institution for deaf-mutes. It has 149 inmates. Oral and manual methods of teaching are employed.

There is one institution for feeble-minded, with 216 inmates. Many appeals are made for the admittance of others, who are refused from lack of accommodations. A good many of these are provided for in county houses, and others are under private care.

There are three hospitals for the insane, one of them for incurables. The total number of patients, according to the last report, was 1,121. It is difficult to estimate the number of patients in county houses. There are 90 in Douglas County Hospital alone. There are also two soldiers' and sailors' homes, with a total of 254 inmates.

The insane asylums and hospitals include the Hospital for Chronic Insane, Hastings: nominal capacity, 650; daily average number, 600; Hospital for the Insane, Lincoln: nominal capacity, 350; daily average number, 350; Norfolk Hospital for the Insane, Norfolk: nominal capacity, 208; daily average number, 204.

Nevada. The Secretary of State reports that the only appropriations for public charities made each year by the State of Nevada are: For care and support of the indigent insane, $35,500; for the support of the State Orphans' Home, $14,700. The expenditures for 1898 for the former amounted to $32,058.84; for the latter, $13,229.31. The nominal capacity of the Hospital for Mental Diseases, Reno, is 225; daily average number, 197.

New Hampshire. The Secretary of State reports an expenditure of $42,742 for charitable institutions for the year ending May, 1899. This

amount includes the following items: Blind, $3,994; deaf and dumb, $4,510; insane, $24,745; feeble-minded, $1,094; soldiers' homes, $8,399.

Important among the changes made by the Legislature of 1898-'99 was that relating to the beneficiaries of the Deaf and Dumb, Blind, and Feeble-minded fund. New Hampshire gives $10,000 annually for the support of these defectives in institutions outside of the State. The law, as it now stands, places the nomination of these beneficiaries in the hands of the Board of Charities, upon whose recommendation only the Governor and Council can appoint children to fill the vacancies. A joint resolution authorizes the Governor and Council to appoint a commission, to work with one appointed by the State Conference of Charities and Corrections, to investigate the jail systems of the State and the State control of the insane as compared with the county care of the indigent insane, and to report to the next Legislature. Appropriations were granted to the State Insane Asylum, $50,000; Soldiers' Home, $20,000 annually for two years. Towns and cities are privileged to expend $5,000 in the establishment of a free bed in any hospital for the benefit of the cities' sick poor, or to spend $300 annually for a yearly bed in such an institution.

The most important new movement to be recorded is the establishment, on a permanent basis, of a New Hampshire Conference of Charities and Corrections. The State Board of Charities inaugurated this movement, and the first meeting was held at Concord, Feb. 21, 1899. The outcome of this meeting was the incorporation of the conference, with Judge H. E. Burnham, Manchester, president; President William J. Tucker, of Dartmouth College, first vice-president; John M. Gile, M. D., Hanover, secretary; Mrs. Lillian Streeter, Concord, treasurer.

The results of the first conference were increased appropriations for the insane asylum and the appointment of a committee authorized by law to investigate our jail systems and the State care of the indigent insane. The Sociological Committee of the Federation of Women's Clubs aided in getting up this conference, while the Concord Woman's Club paid all the bills thereof.

A magnificent new operating room, known as the Wells Building, has been given to the Elliot Hospital, in Manchester, by Mrs. Charles Wells. The Odd Fellows are soon to establish an orphans' home.

There are ten counties, and the amounts disbursed by their officials during the year ending Dec. 31, 1898, included $403,155 for support of paupers. The eleven cities of the State paid during the same period, for support of poor, including aid to hospitals, $105,207. The 224 towns, which comprise one half of the aggregate population, undoubtedly paid in 1898 for support of poor at least $50,000. (Private charity helped to maintain 5 homes for the aged, 3 orphans' homes, 10 hospitals, 1 mercy home for females, by contributions estimated at $100,000. Fraternal and benevolent organizations dispensed in charity not less than $75,000.)

Taking into account contributions from all sources, it is estimated that at least $1,000,000 is contributed annually in the State for charitable purposes.

The poor in its poorhouses include, in almshouses, 692; in families (figures not procurable); county charges in almshouses, 83; in orphan asylums, 327; placed out in families, 201.

Blind children are placed in institutions outside the State. Thirteen are now provided for.