The times., 1897-08-29
CARING FOR THE INSANE
Annual Report of the Hospital
Board of Visitors.
DECREASE TN THE DEATH RATE
Malaria the Chief Source of Sick
ness Among the Patients-Im-
provement of the Anacostia Flats
Urged ed--Estimates for the Fiscal
Year Nearly Half Million.

The forty second annual report or the
board of visitors OF the Government Hos
pital fcT the Insane was transmitted to
the Secretary of the Interior yesterday. The
summary of the report follows:
Number of patients in the hospital on
June 80, 1896, 1,735; number admitted
during the last fiscal year, 2S9 males and
50 females: total number under treatment
during the last fiscal year, 2,112.
During the year patients were discharged
as follows: Recovered, 63 males, l6 fe-
males; improved, 90 males, Al females; un
improved males; not ins ane, A males,
female. There were deaths Of l. 30 males
and 32 females. There were in the insti-
tuition June so, l. S97, 1867 males and 400
females.
Tie report points o ut that the death ate
during the year was but Z 23 per cent OF
the whole number under treatment. This
is said in the report 70 be the lowest death
rate recorded at the hospital in several
years. The report predicts that the death
rate will probably increase during the next
year, owing to the increase in the number
Of old and feeble men received at the hos
pital from the National Home for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers.
The report condemns the Anacostia flats
as fruitful source of malaria and men.
ace to general health. The present report
is the fourth successive one in which the
board % visitors and tie superintendent OF
the hospital have sought TO direct the at
tention OF the proper authorities to the
malariHl influences OF the Anacostia flats.
IN ba f,ia NJ ha PIatv fba ~
visitors say:
''The whole south front and eastern
boundary of the city lie naked and open
to all the deadly emanations from the
far-reaching marshes of fhe Anacostia,
that with their stagnant pools lie restoring
in the summer sun. As If to make matters
worse, some years since in the progress OF
the work of reclaimiDg the Potomac's shores
the mud scows dumped enough of the debris
from the channel along the st. Eliza beth
shore OF the Anacostia 10 cut off the current
in the swash channel, so that the tide in .rs
ebb and flow n o longer cleanses the stagnant
shadows with their lethal burden. a
mastery inactivity has since settled down
over All this Government effort to reclaim
| the Eastern Branch. The eternal pro-
cesses OF nature are still at work bringing
down and depositing the silt from Bladens
burg, looking to the aking of continent
but nature builds up her stratas OF inor-
ganic life through the slow lapse OF ages
while a whole generation of the spores
of quoudian fever mature in single
summers day.
"a the hospital the different forms of
intermittent fever have more than doubled
| since the pernicious intermeddling of the
Governmentin an abortive attempt 10 make
the flats fill themselves. Today the ma
larial germ causes more sickness among
our inmates and employees than all other
| sources put together.
Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one OF
| tie least of these has been indefinitely
postponed
The estimate for the fiscal year ending
| June 80, 1899, is S434, $50. The esti-
| mates are apportioned as follows:
For current expenses, 1878 1000; general
| repairs ard improvements, viz: Brick
sewer to the river, 81 900; dormitory addi-
ton to west lodge, Sc, ,250 cha pei building
| S25,000; appropriation, So 900; furniture
| and heating apparatus for pavilion, Sc 600;
new machinery for laundry, including
boiler, 50 500; refitting old laundry as "A
| shop and dOrmitory, S1,25O; 20O-horse-
| power tubular steam boiler for power
| house, 81 900; increasing water supply at
| Godding Croft, $3.50. Total, $434 $50. The
| basis Of estimate is an annual per capita
| cost Of 1920 for an testimated) average
number Of 1,T25 of the above classes"
| The report dwells at length on the need
| of a new chapel building. Under this
| head it says:
.'The present situation is this: An as
'sembly room, so called, does duty by
! turns as & place of amus ement, a concert
room and a dance hall, while on Sunday
| the platform s cleared of the properties
| of the stage to make room for the sacred
| desk. The board Of visitors have felt for
| some time that this incongruity should
cease, that the sanctity of the religious
| rights of tie insane should be respected,
| and since in the constantly increas ing num-
Der or the inmates the seating capacity
of the assembly room has been long out
grown, q chapel building devoted eX-
| clIsively to purposes Of worship should
| be erected within the hospital grounds,
| convenient of access, where church-go-
| ing might bring to disordered minds the
| healing touch Of old associations and
thoughts of a better land drive away all
| shadows"