Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1878.djvu/43

Rh portion of the building, and providing accommodations for employés and for erection of hay barracks, $10,500.

4th. For a fire-pump and additional pipe and hose, $3,500.

5th. For reservoirs and filter-beds to provide pure water for the hospital, including pipes and a tank, $9,500.

6th. For the extension of the accommodations of the hospital by the erection of a building for female patients, $300,000, one-third of which is asked for expenditure during the next fiscal year.

7th. For the erection of a suitable structure for the immediate relief of 250 patients of the chronic class, $30,000.

The number of pupils remaining in the institution July 1, 1877, was 81; admitted during the year, 15; from July 1, 1878, to November 1, 21; total, 117. Of this number, 103 were males and 14 females.

The sanitary condition of the institution has been excellent, the report showing exemption from disease of any serious nature, with but a single exception.

All the buildings are now completed; the total expense of completing the college edifice, together with connections with the main building, and the remodeling of the roof of the old edifice, including fixtures of a permanent character, having been $125,060.64.

The receipts of the institution for the year were $51,578.06, $48,000 of which was by appropriation from Congress. The expenditures were $50,277.03, and of this amount $28,253.69 were for salaries and wages.

The receipts on account of extension and refitting of buildings were $72,036.86; expenditures, $71,996.50.

The estimates for the next fiscal year are, for the support of the institution, including salaries and incidental expenses, $51,000, and for the erection of a gymnasium, bath-house, and for improvement and inclosure of the grounds, $15,500.

The whole number of patients in hospital from June 30, 1877, to June 30, 1878, was 807; of this number, 530 were admitted during the year. The number remaining in hospital June 30, 1878, was 231.

The Colored Orphans' Home and Asylum, containing 115 children and attendants, has been supplied with medicines and furnished with medical treatment during the year. In the dispensary department 1,083 patients have been treated and about 4,000 prescriptions prepared for their use.

The number of deaths during the year was 118. The average daily cost of supporting a patient, as given in the surgeon's report, is 46 cents. As the Freedmen's Hospital is the only one in the District, under government control, where all classes of patients can be treated, its usefulness should not be crippled by inadequate appropriations.