The board is to act as a commission in insanity, with power to investigate the question of the insanity and condition of any person committed to any hospital or asylum for the insane, public or private, or restrained of his liberty by reason of alleged insanity, at any place within the Commonwealth, and shall discharge any person so committed or restrained if, in its opinion, such person is not insane, or can be cared for after such discharge without danger to others and with benefit to himself. The board is to have the power of transfer from one institution for the insane to another. It is to prescribe forms of certificates required by law for the commitment of all persons to institutions under its supervision. It is to prescribe a uniform system of keeping accounts in the several State institutions under its supervision. It is to administer the law regarding the boarding of insane patients from institutions in families. Under the provisions of the new act the State Board of Lunacy and Charity is to become the State Board of Charity. A majority of the committee of the legislature, to which the matter was referred, have reported against any farther changes in the constitution of the present Board of Lunacy and Charity; but a minority report has been presented, providing for the abolishment of the existing board and the establishment of two boards in its place,— a State Board of Charity and a Department for Children. Legislation is pending providing for changes in the pauper laws of the Commonwealth, chiefly with reference to questions of settle ment. The State Hospital for Epileptics, authorized by the legislature of 1895 to be established on the site of the old State Primary School in the town of Monson, has just been opened. It consists at present of three brick buildings; namely, an administrative building of three stories in the centre, with rooms for offices, dispensary, and laboratory, apartments for the superintendent's family, and rooms for the other officers, and on either side cottages for men and women respectively, each designed to accommodate one hundred persons. Each of these buildings is divided into four wards of equal size, each ward containing a day-room, dining-room, dormitory, and four bed-rooms, besides bath, toilet, clothes-rooms, etc., and a kitchen in the basement. Some of the old school buildings have been remodelled into cottages for the employees, laundry, bakery, etc. The hospital is authorized to receive: first, adult epileptics who are not criminals, idiots, inebriates, or violently insane, both by transfer from the State hospitals for the insane and by direct judicial commitment; secondly, it may receive as boarders and voluntary patients sane epileptics, who may be detained for a period not exceeding three months after giving notice of their intention or desire to leave the institution; and, thirdly, it may receive by judicial commitment sane voluntary patients who are unable to pay the charges for their support. The hospital buildings now completed will scarcely provide for one-half of the epileptics now in the institutions for the insane, and new buildings will undoubtedly have to be erected at an early day. A. GROUP OF DELINQUENTS. Class 1.- - Adult Criminals. State prison, 837; Reformatory Prison for Women, 291; Massachusetts Reformatory, 977; county jails, 728; county houses of correction, 4,188; State Farm, 827; total, 7,848. Class 2. Vicious and Insubordinate Children. In Reform Schools, 433; in families, 1,299; total, 1,732. B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES. Class 1.— Adults. In State institutions, 1,048; in local almshouses, 3,559; in families, 480; total, 5,087. Class 2.- - Children. State charges in families, 1,580; town charges in institutions, 810; town charges in families, 168; total, 2,558. C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES. Class 1. Insane and Feeble-minded. In hospitals and asylums, 6,632; boarded out from hospitals, 116; in local almshouses, 1,230; town charges in families, 123; in School for Feeble-minded, 562; total, 8,663. Class 2.- Deaf. In institutions, 312. MICHIGAN. BY DR. JAMES A. POST, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. The State legislature meets biennially. The last regular session closed May 29, 1897. A special session was called for March, 1898, and has adjourned without accomplishing anything but to pass some war measures, etc. At the session of 1897 two important bills were passed, which were not mentioned in our last report: 1. A bill in the interest of children, relative to the testimony in courts of husband and wife. It was hoped by the Protective Agency for Women and Children (who urged the passage of the law) that, by giving it a broader scope, they could reach some of the heinous crimes now screened behind the sanctity of marriage relations. They argued that, while in divorce suits nothing is too sacred for open court, a mother may not testify against an incestuous husband, though it be to protect her own child's virtue. As passed, the bill was divested of everything but the clause providing That a husband may testify for or against his wife without her consent, and a wife may testify for or against her husband without his consent, in all criminal prosecutions for bigamy. 2. A bill for the protection of children (modelled after the Ohio law). The bill provides That any parent or guardian or person under whose protection any child may be, who tortures, cruelly or unlawfully punishes, or wilfully, unlawfully, or negligently deprives of necessary food, clothing, or shelter, or who wilfully abandons a child under sixteen years of age, or who habitually causes or permits the health of such a child to be injured, his or her life endangered by exposure, want, or other injury to his or her person, or causes or permits him or her to engage in any occupation that would be likely to endanger his or her own health or deprave his or her morals, or who habitually permits him or her to frequent public places for the purpose of begging or receiving alms, or to frequent the company of or to consort with reputed thieves or prostitutes, or by vicious training depraves the morals of such a child, shall upon conviction be deemed guilty of a felony, and punished by imprisonment in the county jail or in the State prison, or the State House of Correction at Ionia at hard labor for not more than five years nor less than three months. Provided, however, if, 1 after such conviction, and before sentence, in case the child has not been deformed or maimed, he or she shall appear before the clerk of the court in which said conviction shall have taken place, and with good and sufficient surety, to be approved by said clerk, enter into bonds to the people of the State of Michigan in the penal sum of $1,000, conditioned that he or she will furnish such child or children with necessary and comfortable home, care, food, shelter, protection, and clothing, the said court may suspend sentence therein. Under the head of Question 2 we note the formation of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children for Wayne County, Mich., but to apply especially to the city of Detroit. This society was organized in February, 1898, and is already doing good work, having had 41 complaints during the month of March. A. GROUP OF DELINQUENTS. Class 1.Criminals. Inmates June 30, 1897: Michigan State prison, Jackson, 843; average, 817. State House of Correction, Ionia, 538; average, 539. State House of Correction, Marquette, 200; average, 204. Detroit House of Correction, 490; average, 486. Totals, 2,071 and 2,046. Class 2. The Vicious. No separate report. Class 3- Insubordinates. Inmates June 30, 1897: Industrial School for Boys, Lansing, 606; average, 591. Industrial School for Girls, Adrian, 304; average, 300. Totals, 910 and 891. Class 1.-. B. GROUP OF Destitutes. -The Poor in Poorhouses. Total in the State poorhouses, June 30, 1897, 4,662; average, 2,565. Class 2.-Destitute Children. Inmates June 30, 1897 State Public School, Coldwater, 146; average, 148. Class 3.- The Sick and Injured. No separate report. C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES. Class 1- The Blind. Inmates June 30, 1897, School for the Blind, Lansing, 91; average, 95. Class 2.- Deaf-mutes. Inmates June 30, 1897, School for the Deaf, Flint, 400; average, 400. Class 3.- Feeble-minded Children. Inmates June 30, 1897, Home for Feeble-minded and Epileptic, Lapeer, 200; average, 200. Class 4- The Insane. Inmates June 30, 1897: Michigan Asylum, Kalamazoo, 1,213; average, 1,200. Eastern Asylum, Pontiac, 1,061; average, 1,061. Northern Asylum, Traverse City, 1,000; average, 1,005. Asylum for Criminal and Dangerous Insane, 221; average, 218. Upper Peninsula Hospital for Insane, 241; average, 171. Wayne County Asylum, Eloise, 345; average, 331. Total insane, 4,081 and 3,986. MINNESOTA. BY GEORGE G. COWIE, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. No session of the legislature has been held during the past year, so that there is no legislation to report. The law passed in 1897 providing for the deportation of alien and non-resident insane and paupers has resulted in a decided check on the increase of insane in the State institutions. On April 30, 1898, there were in the three hospitals 3,189 insane as against 3,082 a year ago,—an increase of only 31⁄2 per cent. Before this law went into operation, the average annual increase was about 8 per cent. The Minnesota Conference of Charities and Correction held its sixth annual meeting in St. Cloud last November. The conference was fully up to its predecessors in interest and importance. The custodial department of the Institution for Feeble-minded at Faribault has now been established and properly equipped. The board of managers of the State Public School at Owatonna intend in the near future to give special attention to the placing-out department of the work of the institution. In this connection it may be noted that the State agency work at the State Training School at Red Wing has resulted in a gratifying diminution in the population of the school. The binder twine industry at the State prison, Stillwater, still continues in successful operation. A new cell wing has been erected at the State Reformatory, the labor being performed by the inmates. Mr. H. H. Hart, for many years the energetic and efficient secretary of the Minnesota State Board of Charities and Correction, recently |