Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/61

Rh having occurred during the year, and no serious cases of sickness reported.

The course of instruction is essentially the same as that of previous years, and the educational progress of the pupils is reported as more gratifying than ever before. Instruction in articulation under Bell's system of visible speech has been satisfactory in all cases.

The receipts of the institution for the year ended June 30, 1879, were $55,202.56, of which $51,000 was from direct appropriation by Congress. The expenditures during the same period were $54,773.69, of which $29,348.71 was for salaries and wages.

The amount expended for improvements on buildings and grounds was $5,040.36

The estimates for the next fiscal year are, for the support of the institution, $53,500; for erection and fitting up of a gymnasium, and for improvements of the inclosure of the grounds, $14,388.60.

The report of the Freedmen’s Hospital shows the whole number of patients in the hospital during the year ended June 30, 1879, 904.

Admitted during the year, whites, 190; colored, 452; transients, 31; total, 673. Of this number 136 were white males, 34 white females; colored males, 247; females, 205. During the year 422 were discharged cured; 90 were relieved, and 140 died.

The Colored Orphans' Home and Asylum, containing 115, was furnished with medicines during the year.

Twenty-two hundred and seventy-four patients have been treated outside of the hospital, and about four thousand prescriptions have been put up for their use.

The report contains tables showing the place of nativity of the patients admitted, and the diseases for which they were treated both in the hospital and dispensary. The average cost of each patient, for subsistence, medicines, nursing, and clothing, is given at forty-five cents per day. The surgeon-in-chief concludes his report with the statement: “This is the only general hospital for the reception of all classes of patients within the District. Many of the patients are non-residents, and must be provided for somewhere by the general government when they fall sick in this city. The location of the hospital is central and healthy. Not a case of original malarial disease has been known to occur within the premises since they have been occupied for their present purpose, and only one case of typhoid fever.”

The annual report of this institution shows a gratifying condition of its affairs during the past year. Out of 299 cases treated in the hospital, only one death has occurred during the year.