4 no public sentiment grew up in the Eastern States in harmony with the opinions of the mass of our own people upon this question. But when the State of California, acting through a committee of its Senate, laid the facts before Congress and the people of the whole country public sentiment changed at once, and we have reason to believe that Congress will soon give us the desired relief. But it should not be forgotten that the report of this Senate Committee has been made the basis for the action of the Congressional Committee, and has also furnished the materials for most of the speeches which have since been made in Congress upon the Chinese problem. The State owes the Committee on Chinese Immigration a debt of gratitude for the labors they have performed. But in addition to this your committee believe that the members of that committee should receive a reasonable compensation in money for their services, sufficient, at least, to cover their necessary expenses. We do not believe the State desires its citizens, though they be Senators, to work for it without pay. It is the opinion of this committee, that the members of the Committee on Chinese Immigration should be paid precisely as though they had been sent out by the Senate during its session to perform the same labor, and that for the time they were employed they should receive the per diem of a Senator, and that they should receive mileage in traveling to and from the place of meeting. We, therefore, recommend the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, That the Senate of the State of California hereby tenders its thanks to the Special Committee of the Senate on Chinese Immigration, for the able manner in which they have discharged the duties imposed upon them by this body. Resolved, That there be paid to the members of that committee, out of the Contingent Fund of the Senate, the following named sums, as mileage and per diem for their services while engaged in the performance of their duty, viz.: To Hon. Creed Haymond. To Hon. E. J. Lewis. To Hon. Geo. S. Evans.. To Hon. M. J. Donovan. To Hon. Wm. M. Pierson Respectfully submitted, -$345 60 602 40 436 00 300 40 300 40 300 40 300 40 S. G. HILBORN, J. C. MURPHY, J. LAMBERT. RESOLUTION OF CAMBRIA GRANGE NO. 25, P. OF H. IN RELATION TO REGULATING ASSESSMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 0 RESOLUTION. To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the State of We, the undersigned, would most respectfully submit the following resolution for your serious consideration and prompt action: Resolved, That Cambria Grange Number Twenty-five, Patrons of Husbandry, would respectfully request the Senate and Assembly of this State to pass some Act regulating assessments in this State, whereby County Assessors shall be forced or compelled to assess all lands equal, which are of equal quality and locality, being cultivated or uncultivated. And that our Secretary forward a copy of this resolution to L. M. Warden and P. W. Murphy, the representatives in the Assembly and Senate of this State, from this, San Luis Obispo County, under the seal of the Grange. Done, by order of the Grange, this twelfth day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight. [SEAL.] RUFUS RIGDON, SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT. MR. SPEAKER: Your Committee on State Hospitals beg leave to submit the following supplemental report, embracing the Insane Asylums and the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Asylum: In almost every case your committee presented themselves at the various institutions to be examined with but a few hours' notice, at most, and generally without any notice whatever, in order that they might see the every day workings and management, and to avoid anything like dress parade for the occasion. So that the condition of affairs, as we found them, are uniform throughout the year. The insane wards of the State are now the most expensive of any of our beneficiaries, and so fast is insanity increasing that it will not be many years until the present buildings, costly as they have been, will be found to be wholly inadequate for their accommodation. The Stockton Asylum is full to overflowing, and there seems to be scarcely any diminution of the influx of patients, notwithstanding the State has spent nearly two millions of dollars in erecting, equipping, and operating an Asylum at Napa. The Napa Asylum, since it was first opened, has received one thousand and seven patients, which, but for that Asylum, must have gone to Stockton. The following table will show the rate at which insanity has increased since eighteen hundred and fifty-one: It will be seen from the foregoing that there has been a steady increase in the number of insane, and that, unless other provisions are made by the Legislature, the Asylums will soon again be overcrowded. By these remarks we do not mean to advise the erection of another asylum, at least not for some time to come, but rather that the laws must be made more stringent, or the power of commitment placed in other hands, in order that our Asylums may not be made a refuge for harmless imbeciles, idiots, and simple-minded, who have become a burden to their friends and are placed there to get rid of them. There can be no doubt but what a competent board of medical men would be able to reduce the number of patients by a hundred or so. During the past two years twenty-three were discharged from the Napa Asylum because there was absolutely no sign of insanity. Four of these feigned insanity in order to escape punishment for crimes committed; several were cases of men who feigned insanity in order that they might receive medical treatment for disease, and at the same time be supported; one "tramp," and a number of confirmed drunkards. A class of indigent sick, covering every phase of mental unsoundness or weakness of mind are committed to our Asylums, which, in every other State, and in every other country, are excluded from the asylums for the insane. Quite a large number of persons, who are suffering with no other ailment than senile dementia, are committed to our Asylums, whose natural protectors have grown weary of supporting, or who are sent to the Asylums because there is no other place for them to go. They are not insane in the true sense, but when they die they serve to increase the number and percentage of deaths, and while they live to augment the number and increase the expense of maintenance. The highest per cent. of deaths in this State was in eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, eleven and ninety-one one-hundredthis per cent., ranging all the way down to five per cent. on the whole number treated. During the past year the per cent, was seven and six one-hundredths. In the State of Massachusetts it is from four to fourteen per cent. in different asylums. In many of the asylums throughout the country the percentage of deaths is as low as four on the whole number treated. THE ASYLUM AT STOCKTON. Your committee made their first visit to the Stockton Asylum, and spent two days making a thorough and critical examination of all matters in which the people of the State have an interest. There were, on the first of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, eight hundred and thirty-three male patients, of whom seven were out on trial, and three hundred and fifty female patients, of whom nineteen were out patients, making a total of one thousand one hundred and eighty-three. In eighteen hundred and seventy-five, there were one thousand three hundred and two patients in this Asylum at the close of the year; in eighteen hundred and seventy-six, one thousand two hundred and fourteen, and in eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, one thousand one hundred and ninety-five. The decrease may be attributed to the Napa Asylum. The per cent. of deaths in eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, was seven and six one-hundredths, against eleven and ninety-one one-hundredths in eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, and this, too, with a largely increased number of desperate cases. The total number admitted during the fiscal year ending July first, eighteen hundred and . seventy-seven, was two hundred and one, and the number of deaths, out of one thousand four hundred and fifteen treated, was one hundred, eighty-three recovered, thirty were discharged uncured. During the existence of the Asylum, eight thousand three hundred and forty-two patients have been admitted, of whom three thousand nine hundred and seventy-three have recovered, six hundred and thirty have recovered sufficiently to be discharged or removed, two thousand three hundred and four have died, and two hundred and seventy-six have escaped. It is a significant fact that, notwithstanding the erection of the Napa Asylum, the decrease in the number at Stockton at the end of the last fiscal year was only nineteen. This would seem to indicate that the hopes which have obtained that the Asylum would be materially relieved from its crowded condition are in vain. Here is found insanity in all conditions of being, all stages of life, and among all classes, high and low. There are children under ten years of age, and from that up until they attain their manhood. Men and women from every State in the Union, and every country under the sun. The management of this vast cosmopolitan throng of persons, bereft of reason, is in the hands of Dr. G. A. Shurtleff, who, without a doubt, is doing his part by the institution and by the State in the most complete manner. It would seem almost impossible to preserve anything like order in this great chaotic mass, yet so complete is the system of government that everything moves on like clockwork. Your committee believe that the insane at Stockton have as skillful medical treatment as those of any asylum in the country. It was a noticeable fact, during our visit to the various wards, that the physicians seemed to be personally acquainted with every patient, and in most cases a friendship seemed to exist between patient and physician, which clearly proved the manner of usages. Every department, every ward, the bakeries, laundry, and farm were visited and inspected. By reason of the farm attached to the Asylum, containing one hundred and seven acres of the best of land, the Asylum is supplied with many of the necessaries of life, which greatly reduces the cost of maintenance. During the past year there were produced beets, tomatoes, turnips, carrots, squashes, beans, and peas, corn, cabbages, cucumbers, onions, and all kinds of garden vegetables, fruit of all kinds, melons, hay, fodder, pork, ten thousand gallons of milk, eggs, chickens, swine, calves, etc., furnishing a large part of the living. The farm is managed by a foreman, and much of the labor is done by inmates of the Asylum, whose malady is not of a malignant type. Not only is their labor utilized, but whenever it is possible to give employment it is found to be a great relief to the mind. During the past year the average per capita cost has been forty-one cents, which, it must be remembered, includes the entire expenses of the institution, salaries of physicians and employés, and all other expenses, summed up and divided by the number of patients. The laundry, which is quite extensive, is also presided over by a competent person, while the washing and ironing is all done by female patients, thus saving a very great item of expense. A mending room is provided, where all the mending and sewing is done. All the muffs and restraining apparatus are manufactured |