Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/105

Rh Chapel services were suspended during the summer months of 1872, while the general-assembly room was undergoing thorough repairs, including re-frescoing and the addition of about 50 per cent. to the original number of seats, hut were maintained as usual during the remainder of the year. The exhibition of photographs by the camera and hydro-oygen light, musical soirees, and dramatic and literary entertainments, have also been continued with much spirit, and contributed largely to the happiness and improvement of a household whose retirement from the ordinary associations of men is essential to its safety and welfare; and in the year under review, as in all the previous years of the history of this great institution of beneficence and charity, a diligent, earnest, and, in view of the many inherent difficulties of the work and the imperfections that attend the best of human endeavors, we think we may say successful, effort has been made by its officers to fulfill in the entirety of their spirit and letter the noble objects of its creation and maintenance, which Congress nearly two decades of years ago declared to be "the most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the District of Columbia."

Soon after the preparation of the last report, the hospital came into possession of the tract of 29 acres, 1 rood and 2 perches of agricultural land, tor the purchase of which Congress had made the requisite appropriation, and more recently the United States has received the gratuitous deed of one-third of an acre of land lying adjacent to the northern boundary of the enclosed grounds, and embracing a deep, narrow ravine, the control of which by the hospital authorities will enable them to prevent the undermining of the boundary wall at that point.,There are now owned by the United States and devoted to the objects of the hospital a little upwards of 419 acres of land, about 360 of which form one nearly complete parallelogram. The remainder is a separate tract, conveniently situated for grazing or the cultivation of the staple annual crops. The original purchase of about 185 acres, within which the hospital edifices are situated, is enclosed by a brick and stone wall 9 feet high above ground, except on the river-front, where the wall is designed to be a "sea" or "retaining" wall, which does not obstruct the view of the external scenery. One-half of the river-Wall has been built.

With the additions that have been made to the original purchase of land for its use, the hospital is most fortunate in its site. Perhaps it is not practicable, under any circumstances, to attain to a higher degree than has so happily been done here, the desideratum to the insane of liberty and privacy—of opportunity for unconstrained as well as agreeable and healthful exercises in the open air, without the many serious evils of exposure to the curious public; and the extent of the agricultural lands and their variety of soil and exposure afford the most available means for the economic employment of the chronic cases, and for producing in abundance and at moderate cost the fresh fruits and vegetables, and pure milk that are so essential to the health and comfort of all classes of the insane.

As the institution now has the use of all the land it needs, both for the special purposes of a hospital,of this character and for agricultural purposes, and is not likely to receive any further acquisition of territory, the accompanying contour-line map of the entire grounds has been prepared from critical and elaborate surveys made in the course of the past summer.

The expenditures and receipts in the year, were: 50 Ab