crowded for many years. On the 1st of October, 1894, 6,395 patients occupied quarters intended for only 4,826. Many of the buildings occupied by the insane are old and dilapidated; leaky roofs, falling plaster, and defective or obsolete plumbing are so common as hardly to cause comment. The new buildings for the insane have been so badly erected as to be scarcely fit for use, when after long delays they were finally completed.

Gouverneur Hospital has no bathrooms, no hot water above the basement, except in the operating-room, no means of disinfecting clothing, no storeroom, except a small, dark closet in the basement, which is infested with rats. The deadroom, in which autopsies are performed, is a mere closet opening on the hall. The nurses' and physicians' dining-room is a part of the operating-room, the partition between them reaching only part way to the ceiling.

The small Emergency (Maternity) Hospital is in an old, dilapidated fire-engine house, entirely unfit for hospital purposes. Harlem Hospital is in a wooden building, surrounded by other wooden structures, and thus in great danger from fire.

A special hospital for consumptives is needed. Hundreds of consumptives are now scattered through the institutions of the department, under conditions apparently favorable for the spread of the disease. These poor creatures are constantly being discharged from one hospital as incurable, and seeking admission to another as a place to die in.

A hospital is needed for the idiots and feeble-minded children on Randall's Island, who, when ill, are now treated in the overcrowded wards in which they live.

Fordham Hospital had until very recently no trained nurses. The dispensary at this hospital cannot be used in winter.

The Erysipelas wards of Bellevue Hospital are in the dockhouse, which is old, dilapidated, infested with vermin, and extremely noisy, being used also for night lodgers. Vehicles carrying freight and passengers are continually passing back and forth through the dockhouse under the wards.

The transportation service to the islands is extremely irregular and unreliable. None of the docks used by the department are covered, and consequently thousands of passengers, many of them very sick and feeble, as well as supplies for the

department, are exposed to wind and storm in winter and summer alike. Apparatus is needed at nearly all of the institutions for fumigating the clothing of patients when admitted, and for disposing of garbage, refuse and ward dressings, which have heretofore been sometimes left standing in open receptacles near the hospital, until removed by the Street Cleaning Department, sometimes dumped into the open stone quarry on Blackwell's Island, and sometimes thrown into the East River. There should be an electric light plant or an improved gas plant on Blackwell's Island. In the hospitals on Blackwell's Island serious surgical operations have been performed by the light of kerosene lamps.

As instances of the lack of efficient and business-like methods, which has hitherto characterized the department, we note two facts: first, that until within a year, the meat for the department (except for the Asylums for the Insane) was bought by the piece, and not by the carcass, the average quality as a consequence being much below what it should have been, and might have been, without increased expense; second, the general storehouse of the department is on Blackwell's Island, and all supplies (except meat for Bellevue Hospital, and coal) for the four hospitals and six prisons which are in the city proper, are delivered at the foot of East Twenty-sixth street, sent by boat to the Blackwell's Island storehouse, returned again to the foot of East Twenty-sixth street, and from there distributed to the hospitals and prisons in the city. The great amount of unnecessary labor involved in this plan is obvious.

The visitors of the Association are not authorized to inspect the City Prison and the district prisons, but there is little doubt that the condition of these institutions is no better than that of the hospitals and asylums. We call attention to the presentment of the Grand Jury, dated October 4, 1895, concerning the City Prison, in which the following language is used:

"It is understood that alterations are contemplated, but these at the best can afford only temporary relief, and would not effectually deal with some of the gravest defects of an antiquated structure, entirely inadequate to meet the demands made, and difficult to alter so as to make it conform in a satisfactory man

ner to the advanced views of civilization in respect to institutions where women, children, hardened criminals and persons not yet convicted of crime are confined or detained. '

"Neglect or indifference on the part of those in responsible positions has resulted in the reprehensible and inhuman practice of placing two prisoners in one cell, without reference to the status of the individuals concerned or to the conditions of the commitment. This can only result in the propagation of crime, and is a serious reflection on the community in which the practice prevails."

THE PASSAGE OF THE BILL.

In December, 1894, a Special Committee of this Association, appointed to secure the passage of a bill for the division of the Department of Charities and Correction, had the pleasure of conferring with Mayor-elect Strong, and laying before him some of the reasons which made a division of the department desirable. The Mayor expressed much interest, and a few weeks later, in his first message to the Board of Aldermen, transmitted January 8, 1895, pronounced himself strongly in favor of this reform in the following words: "In the Department of Charities and Correction, I am clearly of the opinion that the care of the indigent should be separated from the discipline of those who have broken the law. To continue these branches together prevents proper assistance to those incapable of selfsupport, and prohibits the best results from being obtained from corrective discipline."

The bill was introduced in the Senate January 30, 1895, by Hon. Edmund O'Connor, who had introduced the same measure in 1894, and in the Assembly, January 29th, by Hon. Frank D. Pavey. In both houses it was referred to the Committee on Cities.

The principal provisions of the bill, as introduced, were the following:

The existing Department of Public Charities and Correction to be abolished on the 31st of December, 1895, and in its place to be created a Department of Public Charities and a Department of Correction, these departments to succeed, respectively, to all the rights, powers, duties, obligations and jurisdiction

of the existing Department of Public Charities and Correction.

The head of each new department to consist of one Commissioner, appointed by the Mayor for a period of six years, and receiving a salary of $7,500 per annum.

The Department of Public Charities to have charge of all institutions devoted to the care of the insane, the sick, the infirm, the destitute, and the dependent children.

The Department of Correction to have charge of all institutions devoted to the care and custody of criminals and misdemeanants.

The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund to prepare a detailed plan for the division of the Department of Public Charities and Correction, and to file the same with the Mayor on or before October 1, 1895.

The Commissioners of the existing department to prepare the estimates for the two new departments for the year 1896, and to submit the same to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, by the first of October, 1895.

Blackwell's, Ward's and Randall's Islands to be ultimately devoted to charitable institutions only, and Hart's and Riker's Islands to correctional institutions only.

A hearing upon the bill before the Cities Committee of the Assembly was appointed for February 28th, at which time there appeared in behalf of the bill, Dr. George G. Wheelock, Chairman of the Special Committee, Mrs. William B. Rice, Mrs. Francis P. Kinnicutt, Mr. Arthur Sedgwick, and the Secretary. There was no opposition and the bill was favorably reported on the day following. During the following week, at the request of members of the Cities Committee, the bill was recommitted, upon motion of its introducer, for further consideration.

A hearing before the Senate Committee was appointed for March 20th, on which date Dr. Wheelock, Mr. Charlton T. Lewis and Prof. Charles F. Chandler went to Albany to appear before the Committee. After consultation with several of its members, the Senate Committee decided to report the bill favorably without a hearing, and with certain amendments pro

posed by this Association. One of these amendments specifically authorized the continued employment of the inmates of the workhouse in and about the charitable institutions, except in the wards of hospitals, and provided that the workhouse inmates when so employed should be under the supervision of work house keepers. A second amendment authorized the appointment by the head of each department of a Deputy Commissioner, to aid the Commissioner in the performance of his duties and to act as Commissioner in his absence or inability to act. A third amendment provided that the Commissioner of Charities should keep a record of all persons who might come under his care or custody, and of the disposition made by him of such persons, and also that in the commitment, transfer or indenture of children, the Commissioner of Charities should place them in institutions governed by persons of the same religious faith as the parents of the children or in families of like religious faith. This last amendment was inserted at the request of Hon. Elbridge T. Gerry, President of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Such an amendment had not been considered necessary by the Association, as the action of the Commissioner of Charities in the commitment of children would necessarily be governed by the general laws concerning the disposition of destitute children, which contain similar provisions.

On the following day, March 21st, the bill, thus amended, was favorably reported by the Senate Committee.

On the same day the amendments were presented to the Assembly Committee and adopted, and the bill was again favorably reported to the Assembly, March 22d.

Upon an examination of the Assembly bill when reprinted, it was found that unauthorized alterations had been made in the amendments, and that the Assembly bill as reprinted was not identical with the bill reported by the Senate and Assembly Committees. The amendments which were necessary in order to make the Assembly bill identical with the Senate bill were prepared and were offered in the Assembly by the introducer of the bill when it came up for second reading March 27th, and were adopted without opposition.

On the same day, March 27th, upon motion of Senator