POOR RELIEF IN THE UNITED STATES 157 



physical as well as the mental development is promoted. All 

 kinds of work are carried on in the colony; school instruction, 

 partly in evening; schools, trade instruction, natural science 

 studies, and occupations in handwork and gardening. Many 

 recreations and entertainments are furnished, as lectures, 

 concerts, sports, and celo])rations of national and other festi- 

 vals. The entire establishment is primarily designed for de- 

 pendent persons of the state of New York, l)ut pay patients 

 are also admitted so far as there is room. The report of the 

 state board expresses satisfaction with the results so far at- 

 tained. Similar arrangements exist in Ohio and Massachu- 

 setts. In most of the other states epileptics are still sent to 

 the almshouse. In May, 1901, was held the twenty fifth 

 annual meeting of the National Association of Institutions for 

 the Feeble Minded ; and there the separation of the epileptics 

 from others who suffer from defects in the nervous system in 

 special institutions or colonies, and a careful classification like 

 that of New York were approved. Similar views were ex- 

 pressed at the National Conference in 1901. 



To the care of defectives, especially of children and 

 youths, great attention and large means are devoted. In al- 

 most all states, institutions exist for the instruction of deaf- 

 mute and blind children. These are either state institu- 

 tions or private institutions, which are paid by the state for 

 the care of children sent to them. This, for example, is the 

 method for both deaf-mute and blind children in Massachu- 

 setts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and for 

 the deaf mutes of Oklahoma and New York. Generally the 

 institutions are designed for children of school age. The 

 residence varies in duration, and is between two and six years, 

 the former in Texas and Oregon, the latter in Alabama. In 

 sixteen states a distinction is made between dependents and 

 those who pay, but usually board and education are gratuitous. 

 In addition to these special institutions there arc also in some 

 of the larger cities, provision for the instruction of deaf-mute 

 and blind children in the public schools, as, for example, in 

 Pennsylvania, where school districts which have eight or more 

 deaf mutes among twenty thousand children must provide 



