36 



Indiana University Studies 



pedic case, but which would require a special convalescent in- 

 stitution for its practice. 



The cost to the state of maintaining a child in the Robert 

 W. Long Hospital for 1 day has been approximated at $2.40. 

 Estimating from this average cost, the total expense to the 

 state for the care of these 128 cases has been a total of $42, 

 172.80. The average expense of each of the 128 children has 

 been about $329.47, which amount again ranged for the indi- 

 vidual from $2.40 to $2,718.80, the latter for Case J. A. The 

 expense of each of 2 cases of the total 150 was over $2,000, 

 and that of each of 5 cases was over $1,000, showing that the 

 cost of treatment amounts up very rapidly. 



Happily these children do not complain of suffering much 

 pain during their treatment, and the greater part of their stay 

 in the hospital is spent in wheeled chairs or sitting up in bed 

 able to be occupied and to play. For some of the cases that 

 remain many months in the hospital there is an urgent need 

 for regular hours of school work. In this way the child would 

 not drop so far behind in his or her regular grade, and the 

 days would hold more interest with a bit of regular work in- 

 cluded. The Massachusetts Hospital School at Canton, Mass., 

 illustrated the success of the combination of hospital care and 

 education; but the cases admitted there are supposedly on the 

 road to recovery, and the institution lays particular emphasis 

 on the educational care, a required course of study being pre- 

 scribed before a child is discharged from the institution. This 

 hospital has a capacity for 300 children. The average age of 

 admission is nine years, and the average length of stay is five 

 years. As already mentioned,- this institution has estimated 

 that the majority of its cases of crippled children are due 

 to tuberculous bones and poliomyelitis. Clinics are held there 

 for the Medical School of Harvard University, and surgical 

 treatment is given to the patients. The cost per capita weekly 

 was estimated in 1917 to be $6.56, the total maintenance for 

 the year 1917 having been $93,125.27. This institution is one 

 of the most recent developments of specialized care for crip- 

 pled children. 



In a survey by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1914 of 

 the care and education of crippled children in the United 



- See p. 16, Note 10. 



