584 



MICHIGAN. 



classified. If the histories of the patients in- 

 cluded in the last two classes could be ascer- 

 tained, no doubt a large number of them 

 would show an inherited tendency to mental 

 disease." 



In his recent annual report, the Auditor- 

 General discusses the financial workings of the 

 law which commits to county authorities the 

 determination of the indigence of insane per- 

 sons, the expense of their support at the asy- 

 lums being paid by the State after the counties 

 shall have supported,them at the asylums for 

 two years. That officer concludes that, if the 

 State is to pay the bills, its officials should have 

 something to do with making them, and that 

 county officials would use more care in pro- 

 nouncing insane persons indigent if their sup- 

 port was to devolve upon the counties for an 

 indefinite term of years. He says : 



Perhaps the results of this law can be more forcibly 

 illustrated by comparison. For twenty years, from 

 1859 to 1878, inclusive, the receipts of the Michigan 

 Asylunij for nil purposes other than building, were, 

 from private sources, eighteen per cent, ana from 

 State and counties, eighty -two per cent. For three 

 years, 1879 to 1881, inclusive, the receipts of the same 

 asylum for the same purposes were, from private 

 sources, ten per cent, and from State and counties, 

 ninety per cent. Indicating that under the new law, 

 where the counties bear the expenses of the indigent 

 insane for only two years, nearly twice as many insane 

 persons are declared indigent by the county author- 

 ities as there would have teen during the same period 

 had the old law remained in force. 



Owing to its recent organization, the same compari- 

 son can not be mode with the Eastern Asylum. But 

 the receipts for the years 1880 and 1881 for all purposes 

 other than building were, from private sources, only 

 six per cent, and from State and counties, ninety-four 

 per cent. 



Copious quotations are made from the reports of the 

 State Asylums for the Insane, and the Auditor-Gen- 

 eral continues by drawing the following conclusions 

 from what has been here given, and from other data 

 necessarily omitted : 



That the tendency is toward bringing all the in- 

 sane of the State into State asylums. 



That if this were an accomplished fact to-dav, the 

 biennial tax levy for their support alone would be, in 

 round numbers, $600,000. 



That ten years hence (1891) the number of insane 

 will have increased to 4,170, and the biennial tax levy 

 for their support alone will then be upward of $1,- 

 000,000. 



The Superintendent of the State Public 

 School, at Coldwater, furnishes the following 

 statistics for the fiscal year ending September 

 30, 1881 : 



Received during the year. 1S7 



Placed in families during the year 112 



Died during the year 2 



Discharged during the year 24 



Remaining September 80, 1882 8si 



Average attendance during the year 81^ 



Operating expenses of the year $35.887 90 



Cost per capita $116 42 



"Whole number of inmates during the seven 

 and a half years since the school was opened, 

 1,081. Of this number 637 have been inden- 

 tured, seven are out in families on trial, 112 

 have been returned to their counties, ti ve have 

 absconded, and 30 have died. A large per- 

 centage of those returned to their counties 



were diseased or of feeble intellect, and should 

 not have been sent to the school. Of the 

 whole number placed in families but 63 have 

 run away, many of whom are reported doing 

 well and caring for themselves. Recent re- 

 ports from 300 of those remaining iu families 

 are exceedingly encouraging, and the superin- 

 tendent says, " It may be safely assumed, 

 therefore, that leaving out those who were 

 improperly admitted, being either diseased, 

 mentally defective, or more properly subjects 

 for the Reform School than for this institution, 

 from 85 to 90 per cent will become in time 

 respectable citizens." 



The Principal of the Institution for the Deaf 

 and Dumb, at Flint, reports for the fiscal year 

 ending September 30, 1881 : Number of pupils 

 in attendance during the year, 279 ; completed 

 course or discharged, 30 ; remaining in institu- 

 tion September 30, 1881, 249. Receipts from 

 State Treasury, $44,893.39; from earnings of 

 shops, $4,762~.81; total, $46,656.20. Expen- 

 ditures : for current expenses, $44,862.81 ; for 

 improvements, $1,793.39; total, $46,656.20. 



For the same period the new School for 

 the Blind, now permanently located at Lans- 

 ing, reports : Number of inmates or pupils en- 

 rolled during year, 55 ; number instructed in 

 vocal music, 32; in instrumental music, 33; 

 in literary studies, 55 ; in mechanical employ- 

 ments, 46. Teachers employed, six, classified : 

 in literary department, two ; in vocal and in- 

 strumental music, one each ; in work depart- 

 ment, two. The studies, aside from music, are : 

 geography, arithmetic, object-lessons, reading 

 and spelling, memorizing, writing, grammar, 

 analysis, history, civil government, botany, 

 natural philosophy, and geology. In the work 

 department, the girls were instructed in knit- 

 ting (by hand and machine), all kinds of plain 

 sesving, crochet-work, a variety of fancy-work, 

 and bead-work ; and the boys in broom-mak- 

 ing. Disbursements on account of current 

 expenses, $15,536.93. 



The Michigan Reform School for Girls, lo- 

 cated at Adrian, was opened for the reception 

 .of inmates in August, 1881. Two cottages 

 have been completed, which will accommodate 

 thirty-two inmates each, with the necessary 

 officers and attendants. Three other buildings, 

 two cottages and a school-house and chapel, 

 for which the Legislature of 1881 appropriated 

 $54,250, are now being erected, and will be 

 ready for use in the spring and summer of 

 1882. Girls between the ages of seven and 

 seventeen years are to be sentenced to this 

 school, on conviction before any court or 

 magistrate " of being disorderly persons, or of 

 any offense not punishable by imprisonment 

 for life," unless "deemed incorrigible." Though 

 a certificate of conviction is necessary to ad- 

 mission, the school is classed as strictly re- 

 formatory rather than penal, and provision 

 is made for educating the inmates in house- 

 keeping and needle-work, as well as in the 

 primary studies of a school course ; also for 



