Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/75

Rh other unit responsible for the indigent cases as dependents, and, finally, in five states the expense is shared between the state and the county or town.

Few states have made any adequate provision for the care of those cases proving to be chronic. While a few states have special wards or special asylums for this class, they are usually discharged from the hospitals in order to obtain room for the more recent and the more violent cases. Six states (California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania) have established state asylums, and transfer their chronic patients to them. Some few of the harmless class are boarded with families. In Massachusetts the State Board of Lunacy and Charity is authorized to board out the harmless insane who are state dependents. The overseers of the poor are likewise authorized to board out those who are dependent upon the towns. The expense of boarding these with families is not to exceed the