ᎢᎪᏴᏞᎬ

Exhibiting the number of indigent sick, with the results, in charitable institutions, and the percentage of deaths to the cases, during
the year eighteen hundred and seventy-four.

San Mateo County Hospital, Redwood City (1874-5).
Mariposa County Hospital, Mariposa......
San Diego County Hospital, San Diego........
State Insane Asylum, Stockton..........................
Sacramento County Dispensary, Sacramento............
State Woman's Hospital, San Francisco.........
Alameda County Infirmary, Alameda......................

SAN FRANCISCO LYING-IN AND FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.

THOMAS M. LOGAN, M. D.,

Secretary State Board of Health:

DEAR SIR: I am preparing the manuscript for a printed report embracing the period you ask for, and had expected to send you long ere this a copy of it, but one cause of delay after another has prevented its completion; therefore, I send you an abstract from it now.

There have been delivered in the hospital eighty-two patients, of eighty-two children-forty-three males and thirty-nine females; the mothers ranging in age from fourteen years old and upwards. Nearly all were primiparas; their average stay in the hospital not less than heretofore-about four months. In religion, two were Hebrews; thirtyeight Protestants, and forty-two Roman Catholics. Their nativities are: Californians, twenty-one; from other States and Territories, thirty; from foreign countries, thirty-one. The Californians were: from San Francisco, six; Sacramento, two; Yuba County, two; Santa Clara County, two; San Joaquin County, two; Nevada County, one; Solano County, one; Alameda County, one; El Dorado County, one; Contra Costa County, one; Santa Cruz County, one; Monterey County, onetotal, twenty-one. Those from foreign countries are: Ireland, eleven; Canada, four; Nova Scotia, two; France, two; Italy, two; Switzerland, one; Africa (born of white parents), one; Mexico, one-total, thirtyone. Not a death occurred among this whole number.

I wish we could say the same of the foundlings, numbering one hundred and eighty-seven, which we have had to provide for. Eighty-two of them were born in the hospital, and one hundred and five were left at the door of the asylum, by parties unknown; making one hundred and eighty-seven. Of these, I have procured the adoption of seventyfour; nineteen were taken by mothers or their friends, and five remain on hand; making ninety-eight saved; leaving eighty-nine to be accounted for. Of these, one was left a corpse in the receptacle at the door of the asylum, with this memorandum: "Please bury my child, for I am too poor to do so." Of five prematures, three were stillborn; one weighed one pound, and died in one hour; and one in four hours; eight died under three days old; the remainder (seventy-five) died from a week upwards; making a larger per cent saved than at any previous report. Since the former report we have rented the premises then alluded to, and now have two frontages, of thirty feet each, viz: at 762 Mission street and 269 Jessie street, by a depth of one hundred and sixty feet, opened up into one lot, affording a sheltered spot in the open air for the hospital patients and the children of the asylum. The whole is thoroughly drained, by sewers emptying into the Mission street sewer. The premises 269 Jessie street are now wholly occupied for the Lying-in Hospital, affording additional rooms for patients, but we have not had the means to furnish all of them. The rooms, numbering twenty, contain, in the aggregate, upwards of thirty thousand cubic feet of air, and are thoroughly ventilated. The Mission street building, containing eleven rooms, is occupied for the Foundling Asylum, and contains, in

the aggregate, about the same number of cubic feet as the hospital, and is as well ventilated. This building rests upon a lot from which a sandhill was removed. The front rooms have a southern exposure; consequently our infants occupy sunny rooms throughout the day, obviating the charge made against the rooms they occupied in the Jessie street premises. I can now confidently assert, that so far as sunny and well ventilated rooms are considered in connection with the health of the children, that they are all that can be desired for the largest number hitherto occupying them. These numbers have varied weekly, ranging from five to twenty on hand at a time.

As our institution is so peculiar in its organization, differing from all other special or general hospitals in the State, I have been unable to adapt it to the printed formula you sent me. I therefore hope that the foregoing abstracts will give you the desired information.

Yours, most respectfully,

BENJAMIN F. HARDY, M. D.,

Attending Physician and Surgeon of the San Francisco Lying-in Hospital and Foundling Asylum.

[Office, 762, residence, 824 Mission street, San Francisco.]

THE INSANE, AND WHY SO MANY.

By G. A. SHURTLEFF, M. D., Superintendent Insane Asylum at Stockton.

Owing to the increase in the population of the State, and the unusually large immigration, the admissions into the Insane Asylum at Stockton during the past year have been greater than during any previous year in its history. Six hundred and sixteen patients were received during the year. The increase, however, though greater than the average, is not so great as it has been in several former years. There has been an increase of seventy-nine patients during the year. The discharges, exclusive of elopements and deaths, amount to fifty-three per cent of the number admitted, and the recoveries to forty-two per cent. The death-rate has been lower than it has been for seven years past, it being 9.83 per cent on the whole number under care.

The following summaries exhibit the number of patients in the State Insane Asylum at Stockton, California; the number of admissions, discharges, deaths, and elopements for the years ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four and June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-five: