for the reason that I do not think all of the increases suggested are necessary. We are having no difficulty in keeping people in certain of those positions at the present rate and if they leave we have no difficulty in filling their places. The CHAIRMAN: I think that this is a matter which should come up before the Committee on Legislation. Rev. Dr. YORK: It is a very serious condition in our State hospital.

Dr. EVARTS: Mr. Chairman-We have the same difficulty in securing attendants at the Manhattan State Hospital. We have 10 per cent of vacancies among the women; out of 300 women we have had from 39 to 40 vacancies and it is extremely difficult to induce women to come and undertake the work. Previous to the war, we were just able to keep our ranks filled with young women coming in from the old country, from Ireland principally. More of our nurses at the Manhattan State Hospital are of that nationality than of any other. Since the war there has been no immigration and the American girl doesn't take kindly to our work. We are advertising in various places and have written to different employment agencies in the city and elsewhere, we are writing to training schools and hospitals to see if they could not be of some help to us; but only yesterday we had 26 or 27 vacancies. Sometimes a woman will report in the morning and leave at night; others will only stay over night. It continues a very serious problem for us.

Dr. Wagner, on behalf of the special committee appointed by the Chair, offered the following minute relative to the death of Doctor Mabon:

MINUTE RELATIVE TO THE DEATH OF

DOCTOR MABON

The members of the Conference of State Hospital Commissioners, managers and superintendents record with profound regret the death of their beloved friend and associate, Dr. William Mabon, Superintendent of the Manhattan State Hospital, Ward's Island, New York City, which occurred on the 9th of February, 1917.

Dr. Mabon became an assistant physician at the Utica

State Hospital, in April, 1887, and from that time until his death, he devoted his great talents to the care of the insane with continuous ability and success; called upon successively to fill the important offices of Superintendent of the Willard State Hospital, the St. Lawrence State Hospital, the Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, President of the State Commission in Lunacy, and Superintendent of the Manhattan State Hospital, he displayed in all of these positions extraordinary powers as an organizer and administrator.

With profound sympathy for the insane, not only in the institution of which he was the superintendent, but for the whole body of mental sufferers in the institutions of the State, he gave his best efforts of heart and brain to the task of bettering their conditions by improving the insanity law, by providing better food and accommodations for them, by securing for them more skillful nurses and physicians, and by seeking every possible means of increasing their prospects of recovery and adding to the comfort of their daily lives.

For many years past Dr. Mabon had acted as special advisor to Governors, to the Legislature, to the State Hospital Commission and to this Conference with such clear insight and grasp of detail as to compel the highest respect and admiration of his colleagues. At his death the members of this Conference mourn the loss of a friend whose strong common sense, good judgment and ripe and varied experience made him a wise counselor whose advice could be relied upon in every emergency.

Dr. Mabon was a busy man in the best sense of the word. His activities included a broad field of human interest beyond the limits of the institution over which he presided with such great distinction, but, notwithstanding these activities which taxed his energies beyond his strength, he found time to cultivate the amenities of life to an unusual degree, and made many warm friends who will long miss his genial smile and cheery greeting.

In Dr. Mabon, his associates throughout the State hospital service have always found a warm-hearted, sympathetic, frank and brotherly man, for whom they entertained genuine

affection. To them, one and all, his sudden and untimely death has come with all the painful stress of a break in the family circle.

To Mrs. Mabon and her daughters and to Dr. Mabon's brothers this Conference extends sincere sympathy in their great bereavement and sorrow.

TRIBUTE TO DR. MABON BY S. C. A. A.

The Board of Managers of the State Charities Aid Association has adopted the following tribute to Dr. William Mabon:

In the death of Dr. William Mabon the State Charities Aid Association has lost one of the most interested members and trusted advisers of its Committee on Mental Hygiene; the Manhattan State Hospital has lost an exceptionally efficient administrator and medical head, and the State hospital system has lost one of its most distinguished and wisest representatives. Dr. Mabon's activities during the past quarter of a century have been an integral part of the progress made by the State of New York during that period of time in developing and maintaining high standards in the management of its State hospitals, in protecting them from the danger of interference, from time to time, by political or other unworthy considerations and in constantly raising the standards of humane care and of high professional attainments on the part of the medical staff. The Board of Managers of the Association learns with the greatest sorrow of Dr. Mabon's death and extends to his family an assurance of its deepest sympathy.

DR. RYON APPOINTED SUPERINTENDENT OF THE HUDSON RIVER STATE HOSPITAL

Dr. Walter G. Ryon, medical inspector of the State Hospital Commission, was appointed by the Commission to the superintendency of the Hudson River State Hospital on April 20, 1917, his appointment being confirmed by the Board of Managers of that institution on April 21, 1917.

Dr. Ryon was born in Ogdensburg, N. Y., March 23, 1874. His preliminary education was obtained in the public schools of Ogdensburg. He graduated from the Ogdensburg Free Academy in 1892. His medical education was obtained at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, the Medical Department of Columbia University, from which he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in June, 1896. In August, 1896, he was appointed medical interne at the Manhattan State Hospital, Ward's Island, New York City, in which capacity he served until December, 1897, when he was promoted after competitive examination to the position of junior assistant physician and transferred to the Central Islip State Hospital. In January, 1900, he was advanced to the grade of assistant physician and continued in service at the Central Islip State Hospital until October, 1903, when he was transferred in that grade to the St. Lawrence State Hospital at Ogdensburg, N. Y. In April, 1911, he was appointed first assistant physician to the Willard State Hospital, and served in this capacity until January 12, 1912, when he was appointed from the head of the eligible list as medical inspector of the State Hospital Commission. He occupied this position until his appointment as superintendent of the Hudson River State Hospital.

Among the articles contributed to medical literature by Dr. Ryon are the following:

"A Study of the Deterioration of Huntington's Chorea."