Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1872.djvu/28

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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR

ered, 29 as improved, and 4 as unimproved. The recoveries were 39 per cent, of the discharges, including, and 58 per cent, excluding, deaths. The number of deaths during the same period was 44, leaving under treatment at the close of said year 561, of whom 422 were males. Since the hospital was opened for the reception of patients in January, 1855, 3,181 persons have been treated therein, 1,542 of whom were native born. During the year 65 private or pay-patients received treatment, 26 of whom were discharged, leaving 39 under treatment. The general health of the hospital has been excellent.

The expenditures for the past fiscal year were $137,843.22. The sum of $11,198.65 was received for board of private patients, and $1,644.57 from the sale of live stock, &c. The value of the products of the farm and garden during the year is estimated at $5,791.50; and the live stock,farm and garden implements, &c., belonging to the institution, at $15,804.70.

The board of visitors submit the following estimates:

For support of the institution during the year ending June 30, 1874, including $500 for books, stationery, &c., $130,500; repairs and improvements, $20,000; erection of a stock-barn on one of the out-lying farms, and a hay-barn on the other, and of a poultry-house, $9,000; completion of walks and roads, $2,000; erection, lighting, heating, and furnishing a detached building, to contain tailors', shoemakers', and mattress makers' shops, and store-rooms and dormitories for mechanics and farm laborers without families, $10,000; and for removing, repairing, and building cottages for employes of the hospital having families, $5,712.22; a total of $177,212.22. The fifth item of the foregoing estimates, amounting to $10,000, contemplates a substitute for the present use of the basement story of the extension built in 1870-'71, which will vacate excellent rooms for 35 patients of the quiet chronic class, at a moderate cost. The last item of $5,712.22 is simply asking for the reappropriation of an unexpended balance of an appropriation made for the same purpose in 1865, which has lapsed into the Treasury. All the estimates submitted by the board of visitors are represented by them as being essential to the efficiency and welfare of the institution.

I have the honor to renew the recommendations contained in the annual report of this Department, dated October 31, 1871, in relation to the propriety of the passage of an act by Congress, authorizing the prolonged restraint of inebriates.

On the 15th instant there were 116 pupils in the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 34 of whom were received since July 1, 1871. Sixty-six of these were in the collegiate department, representing twenty-three States and this District, and 116 have received instruction since July 1, 1871, of whom 100 were males. Eighteen pupils have left the college during the year, and five have left the primary department. The health of the institution has been excellent, not a single death having occurred during the year.