at Salem.

Others are at the county almshouses or otherwise cared for by the various counties.

Class 2.

Salem.

- Deaf-mutes. Are sent to the Oregon Deaf-mute School at

Class 3. There is no special provision for feeble-minded children. Class 4.- The insane are kept at State expense in the State asylum at Salem. Average number of inmates, 1,140.

PENNSYLVANIA.

BY JAMES W. WALK, M.D., CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. The most important legislation enacted in the field of charities and correction at the recent meeting of the legislature was as follows: (a) An act allowing counties and municipalities, providing for the care of the insane in such manner as shall meet with the approval of the Board of Public Charities, $1.50 from the State per week per capita for maintenance; (b) an act affixing a penalty to the neglect to provide female attendants for female insane patients in transit; (c) an act appropriating $150,000 to enable the trustees of the Harrisburg Hospital for the Insane to replace one-half of their present buildings by such structures as will be better fitted for the purpose.

Bills were introduced to provide for a hospital for the insane, to be conducted under homœopathic management, and for a State institution for the care of epileptics; but both bills failed to pass. A bill was earnestly urged by the governor to provide for a State prison commission to have control over all the State penitentiaries and county jails; but it failed to pass. This bill was modelled largely upon the recent English law, which, it is claimed, has greatly improved the penal institutions of Great Britain.

The most recently established institution of importance under private management is the Home for Epileptics, near West Chester. The Correctional Home for Boys, under the care of the Roman Catholic Church, near Norristown, will soon be opened for inmates. It is destined to do an important work. Several hospitals have lately increased their capacity, and others have been organized, such as the Hospital for Contagious Diseases, for the benefit of those able to pay for their treatment.

In regard to the statistics of the delinquent, destitute, and defective population of this Commonwealth, I refer to the report presented to the Conference at Toronto, where the aggregate number of each group was given, together with the percentage it bore to the total population of the State.

During the year which has passed, since the preparation of that report, there has been but little change in regard to any of these groups.

The number of delinquents, destitutes, and defectives in this State at the present time is approximately as follows:

Class 1 Criminals. The number in the three State prisons is nearly 3,400, or about 1-20 of 1 per cent. of the population.

Class 2.

The Vicious. The vagrants, drunkards, etc., confined in the two correctional institutions devoted to this class are about 2,000, or 1-30 of 1 per cent.

Class 3.- Insubordinates. The population of the Reform Schools reaches nearly 1,500, or 1-40 of 1 per cent.

B. GROUP OF DESTITUTES.

Class 1.- The Aged Poor. The bulk of the almshouse population consists of old people, and their ratio tends to increase as the insane and other defectives are more and more removed to special institutions.

Class 2.- Destitute Children. Very few of these are now left in the almshouse, and the number of children dependent upon county support is not increasing.

Class 3.— The Sick and Injured. The State continues to maintain several small hospitals, chiefly in the mining regions; but most of our hospitals are supported by churches or benevolent corporations, assisted by occasional State aid.

Class 1.

C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES.

The Blind. The boarding-schools for the blind (pupils, 300) and the industrial homes for blind men and women (inmates 250) continue their good work.

Class 2.Deaf-mutes. For this class of defectives there are four State schools, combining both the oral and manual methods of teaching. Aggregate population, about 800.

Class 3.- The Feeble-minded. The two institutions now in operation, one in the eastern and one in the western part of the State, provide for about 1,400 of this class; and a number nearly as great remain under county or private care.

Class 4.- The Insane. There are six large State hospitals, with nearly 6,600 patients; and 3,000 more are in county or private hospitals.

RHODE ISLAND.

BY REV. JAMES H. NUTTING, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

The subject of a probation law in the interest of first offenders against the statute is being considered by the Judiciary Committee, our legislature being in session at the time of this writing.

A. GROUP OF DELINQUENTS.

Class 1.- Criminals. We have one State prison for men at Howard, in which are at this date 181 convicts. There are two female State prison convicts confined in the woman's department of the House of Correction. There are in the State five county jails. That of Providence County has 258 inmates, while in the other four are perhaps from 16 to 20 inmates.

Class 2. The Vicious (common drunks, tramps, prostitutes, etc.). Are confined in a State House of Correction at Howard, the present number being 276,—191 men and 85 women.

Class 3.- Delinquents. There are two State Reform Schools at Howard. In the Boys' School are 342 and in the Girls' School 44 inmates.

Class 1. Our Poor. Are in the State Almshouse at Howard and in the various city and town almshouses. In the first are 387 and in the latter possibly 350 inmates, a total of 737. Quite a number of destitute aged persons are in church asylums and other private institutions, which receive no financial aid from the State.

Class 2.- Destitute Children. Are not kept in almshouses after reaching the age of three years. At the Home and School, a State institution located in Providence, there are 134 children. A much larger number are cared for by private charities, orphanages, etc., denominational and other, none of which, so far as I am aware, receive public aid.

Class 3. Sick and Injured Poor Persons. Are cared for in State and private hospitals. The number of these at any one time I cannot name.

C. GROUP OF DEFECTIVES.

Class 4. Insane Persons. Are not permitted to remain in almshouses, but are provided for in the State Hospital for the Insane and in the Butler Hospital. In the State Hospital for the Insane are 718 persons, and in the Butler Hospital somewhat less than 200 persons.

With respect to the other three classes under the group, their number is not great; and, with the exception of a small school for the blind in Providence, we have not separate institutions for them. They are provided for at public expense by an arrangement with the institutions of Massachusetts.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

BY MRS. M. A. RHETT, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

There was no important legislation enacted at the last meeting of the legislature of South Carolina in the field of charities and correction.

During the year 1897 the several penal and charitable institutions established by the State of South Carolina were maintained with the same care and attention which have heretofore been shown.

The South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane has furnished as usual a comfortable home for its unfortunate inmates. The total number of patients under treatment during the year was 1,257. At the close of the year there remained in the institution 933 patients. A neat and substantial three-story brick structure has been erected for the use of colored male patients.

The State of South Carolina has a large and commodious peni

tentiary located at Columbia. On Dec. 31, 1897, the prisoners in confinement numbered 723 of all classes and grades. The prisoners are all employed. Some are engaged in cultivating the three State farms near by, which make the institution self-supporting; and others are employed in industrial work within the walls of the penitentiary.

Under recent statutory enactments the judges of the Courts of General Sessions are empowered to sentence prisoners to work upon the public roads, and this is being done in nearly every county in the State. This system seems to work well, and the roads and streets are being greatly improved.

The South Carolina Institution for the Deaf and the Blind is located at Cedar Spring. 179 pupils were enrolled during the year. Of the pupils, 120 were deaf, and 59 blind. The average attend

ance was 142.

Special attention is given to the teaching of articulation and lipreading. The experiment of teaching deaf and blind children in the same class has been successfully made in this school. It is believed that this has never before been attempted in any institution in the United States. The per capita cost for support, which includes all running expenses, was only 130.77,-a remarkably low figure for an Institution of so high a class and character.

The officials of the several institutions above mentioned are all

appointed by the boards governing said institutions. The directors of the penitentiary and of the Hospital for the Insane are elected by the State legislature. Those in charge of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb are appointed by the governor of the State.

In the city of Charleston there has been started a Hospital for Colored Persons and a Training School for Nurses. All the staff consists of colored persons.

Two Episcopal Industrial Schools - one white, one colored — were organized a year or two ago, and are succeeding.

Two free kindergartens are in their second year of existence, and are prospering.

The Ladies' Benevolent Society for the Sick Poor has adopted the new methods. It was established in 1813. In 1861 its income amounted to $4,000. The war dissipated its funds. It was reorganized in 1865.

In 1835 Mr. J. M. Hopkins bequeathed to the Ladies' Benevolent