BENEVOLENT, PENAL AND REFOR

MATORY INSTITUTIONS.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

Such institutions as are supported by the State, or some subdivision thereof, as a county, city, village or township, are called public institutions, while those supported by private charities, or from means other than public revenue, are called private institutions.

The Ohio Institution for the Education of DeafMutes, at Columbus.-This, the oldest of the so-called benevolent institutions of the State, was established in 1827. Instruction is given in all the branches usually taught in the public schools. Attention is devoted chiefly to the aquisition of the ability to read and write the English language correctly. In promising cases instruction is also given in the arts of articulation and lip reading. A part of the day is spent in manual labor, the boys thereby acquiring a knowledge of a mechanical trade.

The institution is open, free of charge, to all deaf mutes, of a sound intellect, who are between the ages of six and twenty-one, and are residents of the State. Their time is limited to ten years. The average time spent by mutes at the institute is less than five years.

Ohio State Asylum for the Education of FeebleMinded and Imbecile Youth, located at Columbus, was established in 1857, by the General Assembly of the State. After a successful trial of several years with a small number of pupils, the General Assembly appropriated generously, and in 1868 it moved to its present healthful location and commodious buildings on the bluffs, two miles from the city. Its object is to furnish special means of improvement to those children who are deficient, or have such peculiarities of intellect as to deprive them of other methods of instruction. The education given includes not only the similar studies of our common schools, so far as that is possible, but embraces a course of training in the more practical matters of every day life-the cultivation of habits of cleanliness, propriety, selfmanagement, self-reliance, and the development of a capacity for useful occupation.

Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind, at Columbus, was opened in 1837, and is supported by the State.

Applicants between the ages of six and twenty-one years are admitted, and allowed to attend such portion of the time until they are twenty-one as their abilities and improvements seem, in the judgment of the trustees and superintendent, to warrant.

Persons of good habits, over twenty-one years of age, are admitted to learn a trade.

For residents of the State the school is free, no charge being made for board or tution; but parents and guardians must provide their children with good and suitable clothing, and pay their traveling expenses, and should also deposite with the steward a small sum for occasional expenses. For pupils residing out of the State, the terms are one hundred and twenty dollars per annum, payable half yearly in advance.

The institution is not an asylum to which the blind are brought merely to be kept, but a school for educating them in morals, science, music, employments, and all that pertains to manhood and womanhood.

The Northwestern Hospital for the Insane, near Toledo, was organized by the present superintendent, B. A. Wright, M. D., December 1st, 1871. It has a district embracing seven counties, viz.: Lucas, Ottawa, Wood, Fulton, Williams, Henry and Defiance.

The buildings belong to Lucas county. A daily average of 100 patients are maintained by the State at a yearly cost of $25,028 27.

The Western Ohio Hospital for the Insane, located at Dayton, where, in 1852, fifty acres of land were donated for it, was first opened in 1855. Since then the State has purchased for its use one hundred and seven acres more of land, at a cost of $23,455 62.

Since its organization 3,564 insane persons have been admitted and treated, of whom 1,650 have recovered. The present number of inmates (December 30th, 1874) is 540.

The institution is supported by the State at an annual

cost of about $100,000, and is under the control of a board of trustees appointed by the governor.

For the management of the institution the trustees appoint a medical superintendent, two assistant physicians, a steward and a matron. About seventy-five attendants and employes are required in and about the hospital.

The hospital grounds and farm contain about 170 acres of land.

Questions State the distinction between public and private institutions. What is said of the Ohio Institution for the Education of Deaf Mutes? Of the State Asylum for the Education of Feeble-Minded and Imbecile Youth? Of the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind? Of the Northwestern Hospital for the Insane? Of the Western Ohio Hospital for the Insane?

CHAPTER XLIX.

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS, CONTINUED.

Central Ohio Hospital for the Insane.-The first building erected by the State for the insane was begun in 1835, and completed and occupied in 1839. The building was burned in 1868, and a new one is now being erected (1875) near Columbus on a site about three miles west from the old one. The total expenditures for this institution from 1835 to November 15, 1874, have been $2,171,729.45. The land now belonging to the institution, 300 acres, cost $100,000.

This, like other Stafe institutions, is under the control of a board of trustees.

Northern Ohio Hospital for the Insane.-The State purchased for this institution fifty-six acres of land in 1852. at Newburgh for $2,300, and in 1870 fifty acres more for $16,800. The other expenditures to November 15, 1874 were, for buildings and betterments, $1,034,104.43, and for current expenses and repairs, $941,020.78; making the aggregate for all purposes $1,994,225.21.

South-Eastern Hospital for the Insane. The land attached to this hospital, embracing 150 acres at Athens, was donated to the State in 1868.

The total expenditures to November 15, 1874, were $993,913.38. Of this, $899,188.62 were for buildings, permanent improvements and furniture, and $94,724.76 for current expenses and ordinary repairs.

Longview Lunatic Asylum.-This asylum belongs to Hamilton county. The expenses are borne jointly by the county and the State. Until April 28, 1873, the proportion paid by the State was equal to the amount annually raised by taxation from the county of Hamilton, for the support of lunatic asylums in the State. By an act of the General Assembly of that date, the apportionment of expenses afterward was to be on the basis of population.

Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home.-This home was established about December 1, 1869, and was sustained by private contributions until May 1, 1870, when the State took charge of it, with 115 children in attendance.

The land for this institution, 100 acres, near Xenia,