Evening star., 1916-09-26
Supt. Zinkhan, in Annual Re-
port, Urges Psychopathic
Ward Be Provided.
FACILITIES ARE LACKING
TO CLASSIFY THE CASES
District Commissioners Also Are In
formed of Situation at Other Lo-
cal Institutions.

Washington Asylum hoSplldi DIG 0S
hopeless as ever" Supt. L. F. zinkhan'
in his annual report to the District
Commissioners, urges that If there are
to be further delays in procuring
municipal hospital immediate steps De
taken TO provide the existing fnstitu-
ton with psychopat thic ward.
Mr. Zinkhan, in deploring the failure
of Congress to appropriate for n ne"
municipal hospital, describes the sit
uation at the Washington Asylum as
pitiful. Without adequate facilities for
the classification of different units. 1t
has been necessary. he says, to care for
the mental, alcoholic and dope cases
in the same wards. medical and sur
.icaI cases in others, and this. in some
wards. regardless of color.
He points to an increase in the instl-
TUTORS population of from an average
of sixty-eight patients In 1885 to lsS
in 1915 There are accommodations Tor
only It's. and vet at one time the popu-
lation went to 263.
Treated in Same Wards.
Our psychopatic ward, the old aims
house building. has been overcrowded
much of the year." states Mr.. Zinkhan
I'm this building we treated during the
year 735 mental cases. of which num-
ber 309 were transferred to the Govern
ment Hospital for the Insane. In the
same wards we treated SIS cases OF
acute alcoholism and thirty-nine cases
of morphinism. 1t is all wrong to treat
this variety of cases in the same wards.
Alcoholics should be treated in an in
ebriate asylum: the most of them on
an indeterminate sentence at the Dis
vi k VI
adequate treatment, they could be
given plenty of work, which is so es-
sential in bringing about physical
restoration. A strict enforcement Of
duce the number of victims of the drug
habit"
In his report for the District jail for
the fiscal year that ended June 80 last,
committed to this institution 8,927 pris-
oners or 230 less than in the preced-
ing year. Three hundred and thirty
prisoners were transferred to the peni-
tentiaries at Atlanta. Leavenworth.
Moundsville and Baltimore. an increase
of eighty for the year.
cases were disposed of by the courts
with greater dispatch than in several
years, and that the average of grand
jury cases has been kept lower.
Other Reports Received.
The Commissioners today received an
nual reports from a number of institu-
tions coming under the Jurisdiction of the
board of charities. including those Of the
Industrial Home School. board Of chill
dren's guardians. Industrial Home School
for Colored Children and municipal lodg-
ing house.
The report of the board of children's
guardians shows that June 80, last, the
board had 1857 permanent wards. of
whom forty-eight were on the roll of
feeble-minded; 341 temporary wards. of
whom six were on the roll of feeble
minded, and seventy-two others carried
on the roll of feeble-minded. or total of
1000 OF these 1852 were white and 1.23S
were colored-
In his account of the operations Of the
municipal lodging house, Supt. A H
Tyson states that 1856 transients were
furnished lodgings during the year. There
was falling off of about 80 per cent in
Gae number of foreigners accommodated,
it is said.
Larger Farm Recommended.
The Industrial Home School report
shows a total registration of 142 at the
close of the last fiscal year. OF this
number ninety-tw-o were boys and fifty
were girls. 1t is recommended that the
school be removed to a farm of several
hundred acres, where all branches of
agriculture can be taught and where
there would be room for shops to house
a variety of industries.
The daily average population at the
Industrial Home School for Colored
Children during the past fiscal year was
ninety-two. as compared with seventy
six for the previous year. the report for
this institution shows. 1t is recon-
mended that at least three more cot
tages be erected to care for many wards
who at present are being boarded in
private homes. because of lack of insti-
tutiona1 facilities.