Thirty-ninth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1871.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thirty-ninth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. October, 1871. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    No grant or appropriation has been made by the State to the hospital towards defraying current expenses within the last twelve years, except by a specific weekly sum for the support of insane state paupers ; and this inadequate to pay the cost of board and care. “The Commonwealth from May, 1857, to September, 1859, paid the full cost of the support of its paupers in the hospitals. From September, 1859, to June, 1862, it paid $2.50 per week, which was less than the cost; and from June, 1862, to the present moment, (Oct. 1863) it paid $2.62, which is still less than the expenditure of the hospital on account of the State. The law of the last session of the legislature again reduced the State payments to $2.25 a week for the maintenance of its wards in these public institutions from October 1, 1863, which will leave a still larger part of the cost of the State paupers to be provided for out of other resources of the hospital.” ( Vide Trustees' Report for 1863, p. 12.) The legislature of 1865 passed the following Resolution, approved March 22 :— Resolved, That there be allowed and paid to the treasurers of the several lunatic hospitals, a sum sufficient to make the rate of board for the past year $3 per week for each insane state pauper there¬ in supported, the same to be paid from the surplus of the appropria¬ tion for lunatic hospitals for the year 1864; and that there shall be allowed and paid for the board of insane state paupers, for the cur¬ rent year, a sum not exceeding $3.25 per week. In their report for 1867, the Trustees state, “ the price paid for board in this hospital by the State and towns, is $3.50 a week,” while in the neighboring States of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York it is from $4 to $5.50 for the same class of patients. Since 1867 this hospital has received from the State $3.50 each per week, for the board of its insane paupers and the towns have paid the same; and no other appropriation has been made or paid by the state for this purpose. It appears clearly, from the above statement of facts, that all the current expenses pf the hospital, including salaries of officers and attendants, since the year 1859, have been met and paid