It appears by the foregoing table that the whole number of recoveries was, in proportion to the whole number of patients in the hospital during the year, 40.44 per cent.

The whole number of recoveries to the whole number of recent cases (i. e. not exceeding one year's standing), was 62.95 per cent. This is a general statement, perhaps not exhibiting all the elements of a perfect estimate; nevertheless it is a fact showing impressively the importance of placing the insane in hospital for treatment, in an early stage of the disease, thereby rendering the chances of recovery more than 33 per cent. greater than when delayed to a later period.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

In 1864, in answer to a petition of the Trustees for aid in the construction of a reservoir, and the laying of new waterpipes necessary to insure a full supply of pure water for the use of the hospital, the legislature granted us the sum of $4,000. The work cost the hospital $6,000.

Again, in 1867, on petition of the Trustees, the legislature, granted the hospital $15,000 to pay off the balance of an old reconstruction account, four-fifths of which had been paid out of the resources of the hospital previous to the breaking out of the war in 1861, when the cost of provisions and labor were advanced beyond the price allowed for board, to such an extent that the hospital was barely able to meet the current expenses of each year, leaving no means to cancel this balance except by recourse to the State. (This matter was fully explained in the Trustees' Report of 1866.)

No grant or appropriation has been made by the State to the hospital towards defraying current expenses within the last twelve years, except by a specific weekly sum for the support of insane state paupers; and this inadequate to pay the cost of board and care.

"The Commonwealth from May, 1857, to September, 1859, paid the full cost of the support of its paupers in the hospitals. From September, 1859, to June, 1862, it paid $2.50 per week, which was less than the cost; and from June, 1862, to the present moment (Oct. 1863), it paid $2.62, which is still less than the expenditure of the hospital on account of the State. The law of the last session of the legislature again reduced the State payments to $2.25 a week for the maintenance of its wards in these public institutions from October 1, 1863, which will leave a still larger part of the cost of the State paupers to be provided for out of other resources of the hospital. (Vide Trustees' Report for 1863, p. 12.)

The legislature of 1865 passed the following Resolution, approved March 22:

Resolved, That there be allowed and paid to the treasurers of the several lunatic hospitals, a sum sufficient to make the rate of board for the past year $3 per week for each insane state pauper therein supported, the same to be paid from the surplus of the appropriation for lunatic hospitals for the year 1864; and that there shall be allowed and paid for the board of insane state paupers, for the current year, a sum not exceeding $3.25 per week.

In their report of 1867, the Trustees state, "the price paid for board in this hospital by the State and towns, is $3.50 a week," while in the neighboring States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York it is from $4 to $5.50 for the same class of patients.

Since 1867 this hospital has received from the State $3.50 each per week for the board of its insane paupers, and the towns have paid the same; and no other appropriation has been made or paid by the State for this purpose.

It appears clearly, from the above statement of facts, that all the current expenses of the hospital, including salaries of officers and attendants, since the year 1859, have been met and

paid out of its own resources, with the addition only of this very moderate allowance from the State and towns for the board of their pauper insane.

The Treasurer's report will show a favorable condition of the finances of the hospital for the last year. By this it appears that at the beginning of the year we had a cash balance of $7,886.93; and we have a balance of cash at the end of the year of $8,185.23. The details of receipts and expenditures will be fully exhibited in the report of the Treasurer.

NEW HOSPITAL GROUNDS.

The legislature of 1870 granted to the Trustees the sum of $100,000 for the purchase of the new estate to which the hospital is to be removed in order to place it beyond all annoyance from the multiplied business operations to which it is exposed within the limits of the city proper; with the understanding that the proceeds of the sale of the old hospital grounds, after the erection of all the necessary buildings, will be used to reimburse the State for the same.

After the several farms constituting the new estate had been secured and paid for, there remained several unseemly corners and notches projecting into our land, but belonging to different individuals, also two or three small plots intervening between our lines and the highways, belonging to other persons, which the Trustees deemed it quite important should be added, in order to straighten our lines and give complete access to the highways at all points, and with the advice of the governor and council, after viewing the premises, these additions were purchased at a cost of about $10,000; making the whole estate to contain something over 275 acres, for an outlay of $110,000. To provide for the payment of this sum and secure a working capital sufficient to begin operations of building on the new estate, in anticipation of the sale of the old hospital grounds, the Trustees petitioned the legislature at its last session for a further loan of $30,000, which was generously granted. By this, the whole cost of the new estate has been paid, repairs and alterations have been made on the buildings already on it, and we have $19,438 in the State treasury yet undrawn. We have in process of erection a large barn and two stables, which will

be inclosed before winter, and we hope to be ready to begin on the new hospital buildings in the early spring.

An Act was passed at the last session of the legislature to establish a normal school in the city of Worcester, to be erected on the grounds of the old hospital. The governor and council were empowered to select a site for this school, and they have already located it on a beautiful eminence of the hospital grounds on the northerly side of East Central Street, taking five acres of our land for this purpose, which will cancel a moiety of the grant made to the hospital.

Other lots in the neighborhood, for which frequent inquiries are made, will be speedily put on the market, from the sale of which we hope to realize funds as they will be needed to prosecute the work on the new buildings, during the next season, and continue it until they shall be completed.

The Trustees are confident in the belief, founded on the opinion of competent judges of the value of the land, that the sale of the old hospital and its domains, will furnish means as they will be required, sufficient to erect all the new buildings needful for the present and prospective use of the institution for many years to come, and to reimburse, in great measure, if not entirely, the State, for the grant so liberally made at their request.

There were five dwelling-houses on the estate when we came into possession,-four of them cottages, recently built. These have been remodelled and with some additions, fitted for four families of convalescent and quiet patients. Since the middle of May last, thirty-six women with four attendants, have boarded in two of these cottages, and twenty-five men have occupied other two, and the Steward and his family the fifth.

Apparently happier or more cheerful families, we have rarely seen in any sane community. Many of them appear perfectly delighted by their removal from the noise and confusion incident to the great hospital and its surroundings, and to be placed in these cheerful, sunny, rural homes, where they can, and do, enjoy pure air and quiet rest, together with a wide and varied view of beautiful landscape, and the domestic comforts of their better days.

We do not claim to have established, or proved beyond a doubt, the superiority of the family method of treating a por

tion of our patients; but so far as any inference can be drawn from this limited experiment, it promises the most cheering results.

The men who are able to labor have been usefully employed upon the farm during the summer; they are now engaged in preparing the grounds for building, and are ready to lend a helping hand with cheerful alacrity to whatever work is to be done.

Some of the women assist their attendants in the household work, others are employed in sewing, or in fancy work, and in the season of it, nearly all are interested in the cultivation of the flower and vegetable garden; and they seem to do it with a will.

On the whole, we see no reason to regret the new departure, but are more and more encouraged to proceed in the development of the new plan and arrangements for the care of the insane, and are hopeful, not only of relieving them from many annoyances, but of increasing their comfort during treatment, and of more successful results than have been experienced under the present method of herding together so many, of such diverse circumstances and conditions, in one conglomerate edifice.

The new plan will afford opportunity for a more satisfactory classification of the patients. The quiet and gentle can be withdrawn from the presence of the boisterous and noisy ones,those who have been accustomed, more or less, to the amenities of intelligent and refined life, can be separated from others of low and offensive habits. The cottage families can be composed of persons having similar affinities of temperament and tastes, and who need the sympathy of all by whom, they are surrounded; while the furiously mad, the filthy, and all those of dangerous tendencies requiring restraint or constant surveillance will be confined in the main central hospital, where they can be under the control necessary to the safety of all.

EXPENSE.

We have at present no means of actually estimating the comparative cost of the two methods of providing for the support of the insane. The new plan may prove to be somewhat