Looking at the history of the institution, it appears that the entire State appropriations for building purposes to the asylum, up to January 1, 1872, have been $86,000. To this must now be added the further appropriation of $30,000, made by the last Legislature, for the purpose of erecting an additional wing to the asylum, and which has been done during the past summer; the whole construction-cost amounting to $116,000, for the accommodation of 220 pupils, or at the rate of $527 for each

inmate.

The actual expenditures of the institution for the year 1871, deducting clothing bills, amounted to $30,216.75, which, being divided by 145, the number of the pupils, makes an average annual cost of $208.39 for each pupil.

Keeping in view the fact that this institution is in all senses a sanitarium, as well as a school, and that the physical condition of its inmates calls for a more varied diet and more auxiliary articles of food than any other State institutions, with the exception of lunatic asylums, it will be seen that this asylum constitutes an eminently practical charity, which both indirectly, as well as directly, is working out the problem of rendering idiots self-supporting, by proving that, as a class, they are worthy at least of an effort to reclaim them, and thus showing how, while all the idiots in the State cannot be accommodated within its walls, yet its methods may be copied and initiated here and there, so as to leave no person, however limited in his capacity, without some accessible means for receiving such instruction as he is capable of comprehending.

STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM AT BINGHAMTON.

This institution, among the finest in its architectural appointments of any in our country, and situated in a locality of unsurpassed magnificence, is an experiment made by private enterprise to reform confirmed inebriates, by treating their condition as a special disease. Availing itself of public aid

soon after its establishment, it became the recipient of a portion of the excise tax, which was continued for successive years until 1869. Since then, its current expenses have been met by receipts from paying patients and the products of the farm. The amount raised from these sources has been adequate for this purpose, and at the same time enabled the managers to receive and provide for a limited number of charity patients.

Under the original form of its organization it was not subject to the visitation of the Board, but its managers having placed it in the category of a public charity, it comes within the provisions of our duties to investigate its eleemosynary character, and to suggest any changes in its administration which may tend to render it more useful to the class of inmates for whom it was designed.

Without desiring to express any opinion upon the question which divides the public as to the propriety of maintaining State institutions for the treatment of inebriates, the Board feel called on to say that, in their judgment, much good has resulted from the efforts thus made, and that, by placing this asylum upon a basis similar to that of other State institutions, still greater results might be expected from it.

It is, therefore, respectfully recommended that its sphere of operations be extended, so as to include public patients. With this end in view, it is only necessary to confer authority upon courts of record to commit this class of persons to the custody of the institution, upon the application of superintendents of the poor, or such other county officers as may be deemed proper, the expenses, not exceeding actual cost of maintenance, being chargeable to the county from which the commitment was made. At the same time the managers should be permitted, as heretofore, to receive private patients, under such general rules and regulations as may seem most expedient.

In order the more thoroughly to carry out the purposes of the

institution, the Board are of opinion that the managers should be authorized to restrain, when necessary, all patients within their care, whether committed or coming voluntarily; and as to the former, a system of labor should be applied to them according to their physical capacity. By such means the farm could be cultivated, mechanical pursuits and domestic work carried on, thereby adding much to its reformatory influences.

The income from these industries, and the receipts from public and private patients, would probably be sufficient for the current expenses of the institution, relieving the State from any charge in the matter other than the maintenance of the buildings and supervision, and at the same time place it in full accord with the views and interests of the county authorities, by enabling them to relieve their several communities from the presence of violent and dangerous inebriates, for whose custody and care no adequate provision at present exists.

WESTERN HOUSE OF REFUGE AT ROCHESTER.

This institution, now in its twenty-fourth year, has reached a degree of completeness in its appointments and of success in its special reformatory ministrations which makes it in every respect a model of its kind. Whether we consider the sanitary, the moral or the educational arrangements for the improvement of its inmates, it fulfills in all the most necessary demands that can be made upon an institution of so responsible a character. In viewing here the instrumentalities thus secured for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, and the good fruits which bear testimony to their efficacy, there is a feeling of deep regret experienced that these benefits should, by legislative enactment, be solely dispensable to boys, no provision for a female department having ever been made.

In our report last year we called the attention of the Legislature to the necessity of organizing a female reformatory in

the western part of the State. The expediency of such a measure had long been felt, and public meetings had been held to express the sentiments of communities upon the subject. The matter, however, not having reached any conclusion last winter, we deem it our duty to renew the suggestions heretofore expressed upon it, as bearing directly upon public morals. In this step we are further justified by the conduct of the board of managers who, in their last annual report, thus speak (pp. 21, 22):

"The need of a reformatory for girls has never been more apparent here than now. Our streets at night are simply a promenade in which girls, varying in age from ten to sixteen years, most of whom have either already entered upon a life of crime, or are in a course of preparation for it, are seeking companions in vice, and are doing much to corrupt the morals of the youth with whom they come in There being no institution accessible to offenders of this character in western New York, local magistrates are perfectly powerless to relieve society of this class of evil-doers, nor can any steps be taken for their reformation. Many of them are presented to the courts for small offenses, such as petit larceny, vagrancy, street walking, and offenses of this nature, for which there is no adequate punishment or mode of restraint, their ages rendering confinement in the penitentiary a matter of impossibility. Accordingly these girls, who, as a result of youth and inexperience, are leading such lives, when the mind is so impressionable, and before the heart has become calloused by participation in crime, when a little care, kindness and protection might easily rescue them from a life of infamy, are allowed to cling to their evil courses. The hand of hope, rich with the promise of reformation and future usefulness, is never once held forth to them. No hand arrests their progress until the. strong one of justice flings open to them the criminal cell. Crime has become a second nature to them, years have familiarized them with the process in its various gradations, and the disgrace of open exposure has broken down the last barrier of self-respect, leaving them utterly reckless and abandoned.

"As in the physical nature to successfully combat disease we must not wait until the constitution be undermined, so in the moral nature we must not quietly look on until the whole moral being is

infected, until conscience has suspended its functions and the living fountains of the will have run dry.

"The social evil is attracting considerable attention throughout the western part of New York. Houses of prostitution are continually being invaded by the officers of justice, the inmates and visitors arrested, heavy fines imposed, and, in some cases, imprisonment is resorted to. It would seem that the community is entitled to assistance in the work, at least so far as is possible, by a barricade of the avenues from which these houses are supplied with inmates. Magistrates feel the necessity of a reformatory of this kind, and say that, after the arrest of these girls, knowing them to be a social pest, they are obliged to discharge them for want of some proper place to which they may be legally committed.

"To this matter, which we have hurriedly and imperfectly placed before you, we would most respectfully invite your earnest attention." Within the past year this institution has made some important improvements in its internal arrangements, which merit special mention. In the dining halls, the long narrow tables running across the rooms, with stools for seats, facing one way like prison mess-rooms, have been removed, and are now replaced by tables capable of seating from twelve to fourteen boys each. Comfortable chairs have also taken the place of ungainly stools. The moral effect of these improved and civilizing surroundings upon the susceptible minds of boys cannot be over-estimated. Such things tend to elevate one's feelings of self-respect, and to appeal to the sentiments of decency and good order which always lurk in even the lowest minds. Man is never entirely divested of his moral sensibilities, however much they may have been blunted, and much more is this the case with childhood. Certainly, if such trivial things may prove pivots upon which to turn a sentiment from a latent germ into an active motive to good behavior, the difference in expense should not be considered as any argument against it.

Another great improvement consists in the introduction of steam as a means of heating, combined with ventilation. All the work of laying pipes, with their manifold details, was suc