The amount here given as the total expenditure, should however be diminished by $7,000, money borrowed and repaid, but accounted for twice, in detail, in the printed reports. Deduct ing this item, which is simply a balance, we obtain the following interesting result, which is here compared with a calculation, upon the same principle, of the expenses in two other insane asylums, at Utica, N. Y., (1843-1868,) and at Lexington, Ky., (1822-1868.) a. Not including light. b. Including light. c. Including printing. RESULTS.-The total number of patients admitted, since the beginning, is 3912. The average amount expended, therefore, upon each patient, has been $427 15, of which $369 75 was paid by the state, and $60 40 derived from other sources. The total number of cures reported is 1469, or about 37 per cent. The average value of each cure, (see page 20 of this report,) is $6000. According to this view, the balance between the cost and the results of this institution, may be stated thus: Whatever deductions may be made, on account of circumstances not considered in the above statement, the principle of the calculation is unquestionably correct, and the result as gratifying in an economical, as in a humane, point of view. If any argument, or appeal, in favor of the utmost possible care of the insane, were necessary, these figures certainly furnish it. NEEDS.-The hospital needs liberal appropriations by the present General Assembly, to put it in the best working order. It is true that the appropriation of $7500, by the last assembly, for improving the ventilation, was more than sufficient, by about $3500, and the unexpended balance was very judiciously, though illegally, used in repairing the reservoir, enlarging the pump-house, purchasing a new pump, etc. But in addition to the objects for which special appropriations are requested, very extensive repairs of the original centre building and wings are necessary, and a general refurnishing. The trustees wish a current expense appropriation, sufficient in amount to enable them to supply these needs. This board recommends that they be met by special appropriations, instead; and that the current expense appropriation be not increased beyond what experience has shown to be necessary for the defraying of the actual expenses of living, and running the institution. Every such increase becomes a precedent for future action, is practically permanent, and should therefore be well considered before it is allowed.* III.-INSTITUTION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND. The institution for the education of the blind was originally a small, private school, supported for one year by the voluntary contributions of the citizens of Jacksonville. In 1849, by an act approved January 13th, the General Assembly constituted this school a state institution, appropriated three thousand dollars with which to commence the erection of a building, and instituted a special tax, for the benefit of the blind, of *It is difficult to ascertain from the reports of asylums in other states, what is the average weekly cost of maintenance, because the average number of patients treated is not stated. The Massachusetts board of state charities reports that in 1869, the average weekly cost, in that state, was as follows: The Ohio board of state charities makes the following report for 1868: one-tenth of a mill upon every dollar's worth of taxable property in the state. The length of the academic year was fixed at fortytwo weeks, and the amount to be expended upon each pupil per annum limited to one hundred dollars. Under this act the school was opened, in a rented house, on the first Monday of April, 1849, under the superintendence of Mr. Samuel Bacon, a blind man, formerly of the Ohio institution. During the first vacation, Mr. Bacon having resigned, the trustees appointed as his successor Dr. J. Rhoads, formerly superintendent of the Pennsylvania institution for the blind. Dr. Rhoads still acts as principal. The building erected by the state was occupied in January, 1854. In Michigan, the weekly cost, from the beginning, is given, in the subjoined table: The average weekly cost, in our own hospital, not including special appropriations, The average weekly receipts, not from the state, have been, per capita, one dollar and twenty-seven cents. |