BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS 35 



tals designated as public. Delaware, Idaho, Indian Territory, 

 Kansas, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Vermont are without 

 them, and in other states they are represented chiefly by federal 

 institutions. The private hospitals outnumber the public by 

 nearly four to one, and the ecclesiastical the public by two to 

 one. Although the hospitals under private management are 

 about twice as numerous for the whole country as those under 

 church control, the latter are in the majority in the following 

 states: Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Washington, and 

 Wisconsin. In all the eastern states the conditions are re- 

 versed, but this must not be understood to signify less activity 

 on the part of the churches; the charity simply does not take 

 denominational form to as great an extent. 



There are in the United States about 87 patients in hos- 

 pitals to each 100,000 of population, while in the same number 

 of inhabitants more than 1,300 were persons admitted to hos- 

 pitals during twelve months. These figures would, of course, 

 receive substantial additions, were all patients accounted for 

 who frequent hospitals not supported through benevolence in 

 some form. Yet the ratios per population would probably 

 not be materially increased, for the hospitals not enumerated 

 are almost exclusively given over to the care of the compara- 

 tively few rich or well to do. 



Not only are many hospitals very limited in facilities, but 

 also the number of hospitals in a state gives little indica- 

 tion of the extent of institutional operations. For example, 

 Iowa has four times as many hospitals as Louisiana, or 41 

 against the latter's 10, yet, both as to number of admissions 

 in a year and the number of patients to be found at any given 

 time, the hospital work of Louisiana is on a larger scale. 



22.6 per cent of the gross cost of maintenance was ex- 

 pended for the hospitals classed as public institutions. The 

 cost of the private and ecclesiastical reached a total of $21,594,- 

 784. Deducting for both these classes the amounts of income 

 from pay patients and the annual grants from public funds, 

 the sum which was raised through some other form of benevo- 

 lence than appropriations from taxes was $7,580,504. Many 

 hospitals receive substantial aid through donations in kind, 



