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JAMES H. TITUS, FRANKLIN TOWNSEND,
ALLEN MUNROE, LYMAN CLARY,
GEORGE F. COMSTOCK, E. W. LEAVENWORTH,
FREDERICK D. HUNTINGTON, LAKE I.TEFFT.

SAMUEL J. TILDEN, Governor.
WM. DORSHEIMER, Lieutenant-Governor.
JOHN BIGELOW, Secretary of State.
LUCIUS P. ROBINSON, Comptroller.
NEIL GILMOUR, Superintendent of Public Instruction.

JAMES H. TITUS.

ALLEN MUNROE.

E. W. LEAVENWORTH, JAMES H. TITUS,
GEORGE F. COMSTOCK.

SUPERINTENDANT: HERVEY B. WILBUR, M.D.
MATRON: MISS ALVIRA WOOD
ASSISTANT MATRON: MRS. F. A. HARDY
HOUSEKEEPER: MRS. M. A. YOUNG.

MISS S. P. YOUNG MRS. M. E. COOK,
MRS. R. VAN VLECK, MISS L. E. KNIGHT,
MISS L. PETHERAM.

BENJAMIN N. EASTMAN.

STATE OF NEW YORK.
IN ASSEMBLY,
January 13, 1876.

TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE NEW YORK ASYLUM FOR IDIOTS.

To the Legislature of the State of New York:
Agreeably to the provisions of the act establishing this institution, the undersigned trustees respectfully submit this their twenty-fifth annual report.

The total cash receipts for the year ending September 30, 1875, as will be seen by the treasurer's report, herewith annexed, were as follows.

RECEIPTS. â

EXPENDITURE FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30,1875â

From the above statement it will be seen that there wasâ

The liabilities of the asylum at that date were as follows: â

There is thus an apparent deficiency of $1,500; but this is owing to the fact that the coal bill for the coming year, amounting to $1,700, has been paid out of the income of the past year. In the various store-rooms of the asylum, there is also, at this date, a stock of household supplies, clothing and materials for clothing, considerably in excess of that usually on hand at the close of a fiscal year.

The actual expenses of the pupils during the last year, including all bills except those for clothing and construction account, are at the rate of $195 per pupil. This sum may be considered as a basis for calculating the future expenditures of the asylum, so long as the number of beneficiaries remain as at present. An appropriation of $36,000, or the same as last year, will be sufficient for the next.

When this asylum was founded, it was distinctly established as an educational institution. The original members of its board of trustees saw that, sooner or later, it must be supplemented by another, to meet the needs of unreachable or custodial cases. From time to time they have called the attention of the legislature to this public need. At one time they hoped that provision would be for such cases in connection with the asylum for chronic insane at Willard. No action has yet been taken by the legislature to accomplish this desired end. They now again call the attention of the legislature to the subject.

If provision were made for such custodial cases, this asylum would be relieved of a certain number of inmates whose unfitness, on account of disease and unteachableness, only embarrasses the present management.

The superintendent of the asylum, in his report to the board, hereunto annexed, has presented some conclusions as to the best policy of future state provision for idiots, derived from his observation of similar institutions in Great Britain. These we commend to the notice of the legislature for their consideration.

The asylum has now been in operation more than twenty-four years.

For the first four years the average number of pupils was forty; during the next ten years the average number was one hundred and twenty-five; during the last ten years the average number was probably one hundred and fifty.

Very few have come to the asylum in a positively vigorous state of health; many have come much diseased and enfeebled. During the whole twenty-four years there have been but sixty-one deaths.

The schools, the domestic affairs, the out-door operations, and, in short, the general administrative affairs of the asylum have been conducted in a manner to command the unqualified approbation of the undersigned trustees:

JAMES W. TITUS,
FRANKLIN TOWNSEND,
ALLEN MUNROE,
LAKE I. TEFFT,
LYMAN CLARY,
GEO. F. COMSTOCK,
F. D. HUNTINGTON,
E. W. LEAVENWORTH.
(JOHN BIGELOW,
NEIL GILMOUR,) -- Ex-officio Trustees.

To the Trustees of the New York Asylum for Idiots:

GENTLEMEN -- I herewith submit a report of the affairs of the institution of which I have the immediate charge, for the year ending September 30, 1875.

The whole number of pupils connected with the asylum during that period was 216.

The average attendance for the school-year of 48 weeks was 210. Of this number 180 were state pupils. The remainder were pay pupils, either in full or in part of the actual cost of their maintenance and instruction.

The actual cost for board and instruction of each of the above average number of pupils in attendance was a little less than $200 a year.

Accordingly, the charge for full-pay pupils from the state of New York has been but $200 a year, with two exceptions. The two exceptions named have been cases requiring special attendance. For the few pay pupils from other states, in the asylum, the charge has been $250 per annum, to meet the actual cost of maintenance, and a reasonable charge for rent.

It will thus be seen that there has been no disposition on the part of the management to speculate out of the misfortunes of any of its citizens. The aim has always been to keep down the current expenses of the asylum to as low a point as was consistent with the well-being and proper training of the pupils. By so doing the interests of the tax-payers have been protected on the one hand, and on the other, no family has been reduced to indigence by the effort to keep a child in the asylum at an exorbitant rate of payment.

Wealthy persons naturally seek to place their children in private asylums. As a rule, therefore, the pupils in this institution are from families in moderate circumstances, from indigent families and from the very poor. Many of the pupils were a public charge before coming here. Many came on application of county superintendents of the poor. Of these last the great majority would ultimately become a public charge, because of their mental incapacity or the fact that they were either whole or half orphans. The general dependent social condition of our pupils will, perhaps, be as well illustrated by the following statement as any other:

In our last report to the board of state charities, of the 196 pupils from the state of New York, 56 were whole orphans and 84 half orphans, leaving only 56 who had both parents living. Of the whole number, 196, 92 were children of native and 104 were children of foreign parentage.

The degree of improvement in the condition of the pupils, resulting from their residence in the asylum, will in a large measure inure to the benefit of the public, in their diminished helplessness and unproductiveness, if they become the future wards of the state or the several counties. Of many of them it might be said that, out of their dependence and incapacity, will be developed some degree of self-care and productiveness.

During the year past four deaths have occurred. Three of these were from pulmonary consumption; the fourth from congestion of the lungs. But in this case an investigation revealed the existence of tuberculous disease of the lungs. Aside from these cases, there has been almost no sickness among the pupils. The site of the institution is a healthy one, and the diet and regimen seem to be well adjusted to the needs of the class for whom they are provided. The total number of deaths for more than 24 years in the history of the asylum has been but 61.

The present capacity of the asylum buildings is about 220, depending a little upon the ages and sex of the pupils. During the last year it has been nearly full, and the present year there will doubt-less be no vacant beds.

In accordance with the efforts of the state board of charities to get the children out of the county poor-houses, the superintendents of the poor of the several counties have sought to obtain admission for idiot children now in their charge in the county poor-houses. This has been met by the management of this institution to the extent that the state provision would allow.

The county authorities are also anxious to rid the poor-houses of other idiots who are too old for instruction, and yet need management and care other than that afforded by the county poor-houses. It has become quite obvious that the present state provision in the way of buildings for the reception of teachable cases of idiocy is no longer adequate.

The question, then, as to the form which future provision for the needs of the whole class of idiots, becomes a pressing one to all interested in their welfare or their management.

It was known that the attention of the authorities of Great Britain had already been turned to this subject. Steps had there been taken with reference to meeting the needs of all by a degree of classification and appropriate care. With the permission of the trustees I made a brief visit to that country to study the methods adopted there.

During that visit I inspected all the institutions of that country, except a small establishment at Dundee, in Scotland. Knowing also that more or less of the total number of the class were still to be found in the insane asylums, I visited nearly thirty of such institutions. I am therefore enabled to speak of the present and prospective plans for providing for idiots both a suitable training, where such training would be of service, and also mere custody for the more helpless and hopeless cases.

In Great Britain there are, as in this country, well-ordered private institutions for the care and training of idiots.

There is another class of institutions for the same purpose, endowed and supported mainly by donations and legacies of the wealthy and benevolent. These admit a certain number of indigent cases gratuitously, as also pay cases.

These, by their mode of support, have been constrained to receive not only teachable cases, but also custodial cases.

Thus, donation of a certain amount, carries with it the might to vote in the selection of pupils. At the annual elections, the circumstances of the family from which the candidate comes, have more influence than the question of teachableness in the person whose admission is desired. It is not necessary to show the unwisdom of selecting pupils on the ground of sympathy, rather than of judgment. It is beginning to be strongly felt in England, and will soon doubtless be abandoned.

The question of the proper care and training of idiots, as a public measure and at the expense of the tax-payers, is now being discussed, and practically answered in the affirmative.

Two large custodial asylums, the one at Groyden, and the other at Caterham, are now receiving the adult idiots at the metropolitan lunatic asylums and poor-houses.

Within a year, one of the counties constituting a part of London has founded an asylum for the care and training of nearly 300 young idiots. This establishment has temporary occupation of one of the London orphan asylums. New buildings are now being erected for its accommodation in the suburbs of London.

In Great Britain, the tendency now is to a proper classification of all the dependent classes. One obvious reason for this lies in the fact that when thus classified, the needs of each class can be more readily seen and more economically met. This same disposition is seen in the action of the public authorities of Scotland and Ireland. This motive moves those who have to deal with pauperism and dependence in its aggregations. There is another influence in the same direction, that has its rise in an enlightened observation of the individual and family tributaries, that go to swell these collections of unfortunates. In the families of the indigent, the occurrence of an idiot member is seen materially to diminish or cripple the productive industry of a whole family. In the older civilization of Europe, indigence means a struggle for existence, in which every member of the family, old enough to be put to work, is a participant; even then, the family, perhaps, can only just keep its head above water. In such a case, an idiot child may sink the whole family into absolute pauperism. When this becomes apparent, it is a short sighted public policy that will not assume the lesser, rather than the greater, burden.

So in Great Britain social economy prompts the separation of this class and their proper management in institutions expressly designed for them.

Fortunately in this country, away from the large cities or the large centers of manufactures, such positive indigence is not common. And yet the burden of an idiot member is a serious one in many a family in the state.

In general terms, it may be said that what is the part of wisdom in Great Britain, in such a matter of social economy, is wise in the United States. At all events, their example may be safely followed in the matter of classification, so far as the public institutions are concerned, subject to such modifications as difference of circumstances may demand.

To confine the comparison in circumstances to Great Britain and our own state, it may be observed that the population of this state is much sparser than that of England, and so there is no occasion for the building up of mammoth establishments, which only a supposed necessity would justify anywhere. Even the limits of size, in point of economical administration, are reached, when are collected as many inmates as one superintending head can grasp in all the required details of executive management.

Land is much cheaper here, than there, which permits the occupation of the inmates to a greater degree in farming and gardening operations, in which employments the best financial results are attained.

In many cases here the county poor-houses are very moderate in size, and when well managed the inmates sustain almost a family relation to their care-takers. In all such cases those who have come from them to receive an education at the state institution could, after their terms of instruction were fulfilled, be returned to the same poor-houses, with the expectation that habits of self care and industry may be kept up by judicious management there.

After these exceptions, my observations of the British institutions and policy of management of idiots, leads me to the conviction that their experience and example would confirm the opinions and views of the trustees of this asylum, expressed in their earliest reports, and often reiterated since.

The practical expression of these views would lead to the continuance of this institution in the same line of policy as hitherto, namely, as an educational establishment. It might be enlarged to a moderate extent, to cover a slight modification of present plans. In fact, I think that this would be quite desirable. Thus we could add to our present capacity, accommodations for about sixty pupils. This would add to the convenience of a structure built when the precise needs of the inmates of such an institution were a matter of surmise, rather than actual knowledge. At the same time, it would provide a few work-rooms and workshops.

A few of the best pupils might then be retained a little longer than the customary period, to assist in household matters and in the care of the children, and also to constitute a nucleus for extended industrial occupations. This would not interfere with the past educational policy of the institution, but would enable the officers to apply this education to a little wider range of industrial pursuits.

By this change, two things would be accomplished. The real practical ends of the training and instruction in the school department, would be more constantly before the eyes of those engaged directly in the work of instruction.

Again, for some years to come, it is not to be expected that all or a majority of the idiots of the state will be gathered into institutions specially designed for them; nor is it entirely certain that such aggregation is the best mode of providing for the care of all included in the wide range of the term idiot. This would then be, in one sense, a model institution; its immediate aim, to develop capacity out of incapacity; its incidental purpose, by its practical training, to modify favorably the management and treatment of all the class wherever situated. It would be seen that a fair proportion of their number were capable of some degree of work, and of a varied character. It would point the way to the best and most economical methods of managing even the most helpless ones of the class. The additions proposed to accomplish this plan would not exceed the sum of $35,000.

The other suggestion of this board, so often reiterated in their reports, was the establishment of a supplementary institution to receive the unteachable and adult cases of idiocy. It is important to bear in mind, in this connection, that the line that separates the teachable from the unteachable is not one of original mental defect, so much as of associated disease or deformity; that is to say, the majority of idiots who would prove to be unteachable under proper efforts of instruction, are so diseased or deformed as to be fairly rated as hospital or infirmary cases. Intelligent children or persons with the same amount of disease, would hardly be put to school. This has a bearing on the question of the kind of provision that should be made for the two classes.

This supplementary provision might be made in connection with the asylum for chronic insane at Willard, or by the erection of an independent establishment at some convenient point in the state. In either case, the necessary buildings would be of a very inexpensive character; so, too, the cost of maintenance of such cases would be very moderate.

In closing this report, it is my good fortune to be able to express my entire satisfaction with the conduct of my assistants of every grade, in their several departments of duty and labor. I have found them ever ready to do not only their customary duties, but whatever of unusual service the exigencies of an asylum like ours demanded. If any credit attaches to my management as superintendent, I desire to share it with those, without whose cordial and efficient aid, my labors would have been in vain.

H. B. WILBUR, Superintendent.
SYRACUSE, N. Y., January 1, 1876.

Allen Munroe, Treasurer of the New York Asylum for Idiots, in account current with the state of New York, for cash received and expended for the general supplies, and the salaries and wages of officers, teachers, attendants and servants of said asylum, during the year ending September 30, 1875.

STEWARD'S REPORT OF PRODUCT OF FARM AND GARDEN.â

BENJAMIN N. EASTMAN, Steward.