Dr. WILLIAM H. CARMALT (New Haven): I think that it would be a mistake to abolish the Committee. The subject itself is sufficiently important to keep before the Society. If you dismiss the Committee, the thing falls to the ground; as it is the subject will be kept before us for some little time to come; otherwise, this important matter will simply be passed over.

THE PRESIDENT: I understand that the Committee will be continued, unless some action is taken to the contrary. I will next call for the report of the Committee on a State Farm for Inebriates, of which Dr. Frank H. Barnes is the Chairman.

DR. FRANK H. BARNES (Stamford): Mr. President and Gentlemen: I wish to report that your Committee on a State Farm for Inebriates drafted a bill covering the proposition for the establishment of such an institution, and presented it to the Legislature, through your Committee on Public Policy and Legislation. I cannot remember the exact date of the hearing; but there was a hearing held; and we appeared before the Committee on Humane Institutions. We had a very good hearing and a large number of physicians were present, as delegates from the different county associations. There were also representatives of various charitable organizations, such as the State Temperance Society and the Confederation of Churches. It was my pleasure to conduct the hearing, and it was apparently a very successful one. There were two other bills besides ours presented: one, by Senator Frohlich; and another bill that I do not remember who presented. Anyway, there were three bills before the Committee; and they decided to have one hearing on the whole subject, and discuss the three bills at the same time.

Prac

There was not much said in favor of the other bills. tically all that was said was said in favor of the bill of the Connecticut State Medical Society. Subsequently the matter was passed on by the Committee on Humane Institutions, and Senator Froelich's bill was accepted. As I understand it, this bill had some of the provisions of our bill, and, in fact, must have covered the subject very well; so they will recommend that a State Farm for Inebriates be established in our State. They changed the title, I believe, to a "State Farm"; as they did not

like the word "Inebriates" to appear in the title. The bill was then presented to the Committee on Appropriations, and they reported favorably to the amount of $50,000. Therefore, I am very glad to be able to report to you that it looks as if our State Farm were an assured success. The matter still has to come up before the Senate; and the only thing that remains for us to do is to try to get every Senator and Representative to vote for the bill. I have spoken to several, and they are very favorable to it; and if all of us get busy, there is no doubt but what it will go through.

THE PRESIDENT: The next is the report of the Committee on Medical Inspection of Schools. Is that Committee prepared to report? (There was no answer.) Then, that brings us to Miscellaneous Business.

DR. W. L. HIGGINS (South Coventry): I do not think that I shall be able to meet with the House of Delegates to-morrow; so perhaps I had better bring us a certain matter. As a member of the Committee on the Epileptic Colony at Mansfield, for which we received, from the Legislature, an appropriation for new buildings, I want to say that we hope to have the institution open in a few weeks. Owing to the fact that some appropriations for some necessary things were overlooked in the hasty adjournment of the last session of the Legislature, we had no appropriations for laundry or laundry machinery, nor for some of the necessary furniture. Of course, you cannot start an institution without a laundry. We have not yet received the appropriation from this General Assembly. We were not able to break ground until June of last year. We had to develop water-supply and sewage-disposal plants, and to build a siding, a mile long, from the Mansfield station to the center of our property. We had to construct water-tight buildings, such as a kitchen, and all others that go to the starting of a large institution; and do everything else from the foundation up.

The Board of Trustees of the Epileptic Colony, soon after their appointment, selected a Superintendent. He was a man who had had sixteen years' experience in various institutions in New York, mostly in insane hospitals; but for five or six years

he had been at San Francisco, at the Epileptic Colony there. We thought it best to start with an experienced man; although the first thought of the Trustees had been that some young man, just starting, might take the position for a year, for his maintenance, and grow up with the institution. We had not studied the question, very long, before we found that we needed an experienced man, who would not make mistakes that would be expensive to rectify. We have had some criticism from the public press in regard to our having employed a superintendent before we had any patients. From what the reporters said, you would think we had committed an unpardonable sin, by doing so. In fact, a Senator said as much. But what did the Board of Directors do at the New Reformatory? They took Mr. Garvin from the State Prison, in order to have his advice from the start. That is the way all institutions are started, if they are started properly. Of course the Board of Trustees have felt the criticism somewhat; but we have not rushed into print, and we feel that we are subject more to the Connecticut State Medical Society than to any other body of men, because this is the association that was instrumental in getting the institution started. We know that we have the deep interest of this Association in our work.

We have an appropriation from this present session of the Legislature, and they have recommended that the sum of $155,250 be given us. This is largely for the maintenance of eighty patients for the next two years, allowing us nothing for new buildings. Now it is the experience of all public institutions that it takes three years to get the patients into the buildings, after the appropriations have been received; because you have to get architects' plans and builders' bids, and this takes time. We frankly stated to the Legislature at the last session that there were thirty-five hundred epileptics in this State, and that probably not more than twenty per cent. of them would ever find their way into such an institution; and that, therefore, we felt that we must plan for a patient-population of six hundred, with the necessary attendants. That would mean appropriations of from six thousand to one million dollars, in order to develop

the plant properly, so that we could administer it in an economical way. There are certain general expenses in such an institution, which are practically as great with eighty patients as with six hundred. We have to pay the Superintendent, the farmer and other employees, the same as if there were more; so that the per capita cost will be high, if we are to have only eighty patients. We have asked for appropriations of sufficient size to enable us to take care of eighty more patients. We have nearly eighty formal applications for admission already; and, furthermore, Dr. Henry S. Noble of the Insane Hospital at Middletown says that there are fifty patients in that institution that are more epileptic than insane, and should be transferred to the Epileptic Colony. Dr. Hallock also has a number, and there are also some at the institution for the Feeble Minded. We do not want to take them from institutions where they are being cared for. Our first thought is for those who now have no place to go to; and it is a fact that if we get no appropriations for new buildings, the work will be retarded and no more patients can be received after our accommodations are taken up with the first eighty patients, until three years have passed. There will be an interval of three years in which we shall be practically at a standstill, and we are going to have the highest per capita cost for caring for these patients. In view of what I have said, and the Legislature not having yet closed its work, I think that it is possible to secure from the Legislative Committee a favorable report for a sum to provide for additional accommodation for patients.

Now here is a point that the Appropriations Committee should consider: We have but one boiler, one engine and one dynamo, for heating these buildings, furnishing steam for cooking and electricity for the lighting of the buildings. Those of you who have had any experience with machinery know, that, no matter whether the machinery is new or not, some accident may happen to it at any time. Supposing that one set should give out in the middle of the cold season of the year. Something will happen. We shall be criticised, and we hope it will not be the Board of Trustees that will get the blame. We want to have the influence of our State Society brought to bear on the Appropriation Com

mittee, in order that they may see the matter in its true light. I do not know whether it is because the Board of Trustees has not presented the matter in the proper form, but at the hearing there were not present any more than four of the members of the Committee; and they were not continuously present. Besides, one of those that were present died and was buried the other day. DR. WILLIAM H. CARMALT (New Haven): In consequence? DR. W. L. HIGGINS (South Coventry): No; I think he was friendly to the institution, but his health was such that he could not give us much assistance.

Now I think the House of Delegates might pass a resolution something like this: That the Chairman of our Committee on Public Policy and Legislation be requested to take up this matter on behalf of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and see whether the Appropriation Committee will not do something for us. I think that Dr. McKnight is the Chairman of the Committee on Public Policy and Legislation, and I believe that he might have great influence in securing favorable action. Not only is he the Chairman of the Committee; he is also an ex-President of this Society. Furthermore, two of the Senators are Hartford men, Senators Hooker and Purcell; even if there is no public hearing granted, it would do a great deal of good to see these men. At our last meeting, we voted unanimously to instruct the Chairman to ask for another hearing. The Board of Trustees did not feel, at this meeting, that it was necessary to educate the Appropriation Committee up to the idea, or to go into the merits of this system of treating epilepsy, the desirability of an institution of this kind, and all that. We took it for granted that the policy of the State had been established, and that the thing to do was to go on and develop it. The State Board of Charities unanimously endorsed our position, and said that they were not prepared to ask for any new things, and were not going to endorse a State Farm for Inebriates. They thought that the Legislature should take care of the things already begun, like the Epileptic Colony.

If any of you wish to know more about what we purpose doing and what we are asking for, I shall be very glad to furnish