4. General Supplies. Brooms, brushes, mops, etc. Laundry supplies. Soaps and cleaners. Toilet articles. Towels and toweling. Miscellaneous. 5. Farm and Garden. Feed for horses. Feed for cattle. Feed for hogs. Feed for poultry. Implements and tools. Live stock. Machinery. Rentals. Seeds, plants, etc. Stable maintenance. Wagons, sleighs and harness. Miscellaneous. 6. Clothing. Clothing, ready-made. Footwear, ready-made (including hosiery). Material for footwear (including hosiery). 7. Furniture and furnishings. Bedding. Furniture (new). Furniture (repairs to). Miscellaneous (carpets, curtains, shades, awnings, etc.). 8. Transportation of patients. 9. Fuel and light. Fuel (including gasoline for heat and for power for stationary engines). Lighting (electricity, gas, oil and electric lamps). 10. Ordinary repairs and shops. Repairs to buildings. Miscellaneous repairs (other than buildings). Shops (or Departments). Blacksmith. Carpenter. Electrical. Engineering. Machine. Mason. Plumbing. Tinsmith. (Other shops, if necessary, arranged in alphabetical order). 11. Medical Supplies. Dental suppplies and instruments. Glassware, rubber goods and druggists sun dries. Laboratory supplies. Medical books and periodicals. Oculist supplies and instruments. Pharmaceutical preparations, drugs, oils, and chemicals. Surgical instruments and appliances. Miscellaneous (including plasters, dressings, etc.). 12. Miscellaneous. Boat and dock service. Books and periodicals. Entertainment, etc. Freight, express and teaming (including maintenance of auto truck, teams and wagons used for hauling freight). General administration (teams, auto or carriage for superintendent or other officer and maintenance of same). Photography. Postage. Printing and advertising. Stationery. Special religious services. Special medical services (including visiting dentist and oculist). Special technical or expert services. Telephone and telegrams. Traveling expenses. Water and ice. Miscellaneous. Commutation. 13. Lawns, roads and grounds. Feed. Wagons, sleighs and harness. Stable maintenance. Seeds, fertilizers, etc. Miscellaneous. 14. Manufacturing. (Utica and Rochester only.) LICENSED PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS FOR THE INSANE Very few noteworthy changes have occurred during the year in these institutions. A license was issued to Dr. James R. Bolton for an institution to be located at Beacon, to be known as Dr. Bolton's Home, at which only women patients are to be received. A license was also issued to Dr. D. W. McFarland for the establishment of a new institution to be located at Hastings-onHudson with a capacity for twenty-five patients. Subject to the Commission's inspection these institutions, as well as all other private and public institutions for the insane, are now permitted to receive voluntary patients. An application was received just before the close of the year from Dr. Daniel H. Arthur, formerly superintendent of the Gowanda State Homeopathic Hospital, for a license permitting him to establish a private institution at Pleasantville. A careful inspection of Dr. Arthur's property was made by the Commission and a license was issued. On the 21st of April a new license was issued to Dr. Combes' Sanitarium, permitting the reception of forty-six patients. On the 28th of September, permission was given Dr. McFarland to change the title of his institution to Spring Hill Sanitarium. On February 14, a new license was issued to Dr. Flavius Packer, permitting him to receive twenty-three patients at West Hill and six patients at the branch located at White Oak Farm at Pawling. A new license was issued to Dr. Ralph W. Parsons, physician in charge of Greenmont-on-the-Hudson (Ossining), permitting him to receive three women patients. After inspection the Commission approved of an addition to the Brigham Hall Hospital at Canandaigua, designed for the accommodation of disturbed patients. As usual a considerable number of complaints were received from committed patients in these institutions. These complaints have all been given prompt attention, either by the Medical Commissioner of by the medical inspector. The insane committed to private institutions are, as a class, exacting and querulous and are rarely satisfied with even the most devoted care and attention on the part of their attendants. Hence the Commission, before issuing licenses for the establishment of private houses for the insane, makes special inquiry as to the character, education and experience and tact possessed by the applicant. The Commission regrets to report continued indifference on the part of some of the physicians in charge of private, licensed institutions as to modern methods of care and treatment. With one or two exceptions very little interest is shown in the individual study of cases. There is a lack of graduate nurses in many of these institutions and no adequate scheme of instruction for nurses and attendants, a condition sure to continue so long as the Commission's recommendation for the appointment of a superintendent of nurses, or at least a supervisor who has graduated from a State hospital training school is ignored. With a continuation of present conditions, it is impossible to expect any progress in either re-educational, occupational or laboratory methods. It also seems obvious that motives of self-interest would lead those in charge of private institutions to inaugurate as early as possible a sorely needed improvement in the instruction of their assistant physicians. JOINT PURCHASING COMMITTEE The activities of the Joint Purchasing Committee under the direction of the Commission have continued and contracts totaling $1,360,738.91 have been made. At the suggestion of the Governor, the Commission arranged to have the State hospitals included during the summer, with the Department of Public Buildings, the State Prison Department, and the Fiscal Supervisor's Department in a joint contract for coal under specifications prepared on a basis of British thermal units, the total amount contracted for being 320,000 tons. Under the terms of this contract. each institution will pay for the amount of heat units produced by the coal delivered, as shown by analysis. It is believed that the new specifications will work no injustice to either the State or the contractor for the reason that they provide equally for premiums and penalties as the analysis determines excess heating content of the coal, or the contrary. In the matter of fresh meats for the hospitals, the increasing demand for native stock with no corresponding increase in the supply, together with the removal of the tariff on imported beef suggested the advisability of contracting for this staple on new specifications with the result that Argentine beef of satisfactory grade was delivered to the hospitals during April, May and June |