consequent destruction of public records, instead of renting temporary quarters from year to year. Even this main building, popularly known as the Patent-Office building, is so crowded as to compromise the health of the employés. Light and ventilation are sacrificed, records, of necessity, placed in cases in the halls, a prey to vermin, and where they can neither be safe from interference nor subject to proper control. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the legislative branch of the Government will seriously consider this subject and provide the necessary relief.

GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE.

The whole number of patients under treatment at this institution during the year was 1,524, the daily average being 1,219.62. The number of admissions was 303, discharges (including deaths) 257, leaving 1,267 remaining in the hospital at the close of the fiscal year.

The board of visitors recommend an appropriation of $17,000 to provide additional accommodations for the colored insane. There are now 183 of this class of patients in the hospital, of both sexes. The lodges originally intended for their occupation accommodate only 90, leaving one-half the number to be provided for in the other already crowded wards. With the amount asked the Board state that by extending the lodges with large associate dormitories space for 100 beds can be provided. They also represent that the wharf at the river is in an unsafe condition and should be rebuilt. All the coal consumed in the hospital, amounting to over 3,000 tons annually, is received at this wharf. They ask for an appropriation of $3,500 for this improvement. They renew their recommendations of last year for an appropriation (81,500) for a suitable building for the use of the custodian of the cemetery, which they regard as necessary for the protection of the graves from desecration, and for an appropriation of $6,000 to provide for the purchase of additional land, adjacent to the hospital farm, needed for grazing the increasing herd of cattle from which the hospital supply of milk is derived. The necessity for these improvements and additions, as set forth in the report of the Board, would seem to commend their recommendations to the favorable consideration of Congress.

FREEDMEN'S HOSPITAL.

The number of admissions to the hospital during the year was 2,131, an increase of 111 over the previous year. Of these 596 were white males, 107 white female, 734 colored males, and 694 colored females; 3,002 persons were prescribed for in the dispensary attached to the hos pital. Of the admissions 186 were ex-soldiers and sailors who, coming to the city to look after their claims for pensions, disabled and without means of support, were temporarily provided with food and shelter in the hospital. The number of deaths was 212, which though large was less than in the preceding year. The surgeon-in-chief accounts for this rate of mortality from the fact that the patients are mostly from a class subjected to the worst hygienic, physical, and moral influences, and averse to receiving treatment until driven to it by necessity. A table submitted with his report shows that the greater proportion of deaths occurred within a few days after admission.

WASHINGTON HOSPITAL FOR FOUNDLINGS.

The reports of the directors of the hospital, covering the period of its existence prior to July 1, 1886, afford the following history of that institution:

By the last will and testament of Joshua Pierce, who died at Linnæan Hill, near Washington, April 11, 1869, fourteen lots or parcels of ground, part of square 207, situated between R and S streets north, and Fourteenth and Fifteenth streets west, in the city of Washington, were de vised and bequeathed to trustees to be held as a site for a hospital for foundlings, to be erected by any association, society, or institution that might thereafter be incorporated by act of Congress.

To carry into effect the provisions of this bequest Congress, by an act approved April 22, 1870 (Stats., v. 16, p. 92), constituted certain persons named therein a body politic and corporate under the name of the "Washington Hospital for Foundlings," defining the object of the association to be "to found in the city of Washington a hospital for the reception and support of destitute and friendless children." It was further provided that the foundlings received in the hospital shall be deemed and considered wholly under the guardianship, care, and con trol of said institution, to be educated, apprenticed, or otherwise dis posed of in such manner as the directors of said hospital may, in

their judgment, deem for the best interest of said children until they shall attain the age of eighteen years, when said care and control shall cease. It was made the duty of the president and directors to report to the Secretary of the Interior the condition of said institution on the 1st day of July in each year.

The conditions of the will having been complied with by this act of incorporation, the trustees named in the will conveyed the real estate to the Washington Hospital for Foundlings by deed dated May 5, 1873.

There being no funds for the erection of buildings necessary to carry into effect the object of the institution, upon the application of the directors appropriations were made by the Territorial legislature of the District of Columbia, in the years 1872 and 1873, of cash and tax-lien certificates from which the sum of $10,756.10 was realized. This sum was not deemed by the directors to be sufficient for the erection of suitable buildings and for current expenses, and they considered it best to foster their resources until they should be sufficient to warrant their practical application to the purposes of the hospital.

In their report for the year 1885 the directors value the assets of the hospital at $46,028.77, including the real estate, estimated at $28,670, and state that in the spring of that year a contract had been made for the erection of a hospital building upon the donated ground, after a plan prepared by J. S. Billings, surgeon, United States Army, to cost, when completed, $23,500.

In their report covering the last fiscal year (1886) the directors state that their entire asssets, exclusive of real estate, have been converted into cash. They were compelled for want of funds to suspend work upon the building until the appropriation of $3,500, made at the last session of Congress, became available. Under that appropriation work was resumed and the building will soon be completed. They have so far expended $21,000 on the building, and upon its completion, together with certain necessary extra work, their entire resources will be exhausted. They will then have a valuable property, suitable for the purpose for which the corporation was created, but will be without the means to furnish it for practical use.

The directors invite attention to the necessity for an institution of this character as rendered the more apparent from the police reports of abandoned and murdered infants, and express the belief that if the means were provided to bring the hospital into actual operation the exhibit made of good and needed work would so appeal to the public that they could rely largely upon private contributions to meet its current expenses. They therefore ask that an appropriation of $10,000 be made by Congress for the purpose indicated. The suggestions of the board of directors meet with my approval, and I recommend an appropriation of the amount requested.

A board of lady managers has been organized with a view to aid in securing contributions and to assist in the management of the institution when it goes into practical operation.

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

It appears from the report of the board of directors of this institution that the number under instruction therein during the year was 126, of whom 50 were in the collegiate and 76 in the primary department, representing thirteen States and Ireland. The degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred on six graduates at the close of the year. They report that the work of instruction has gone forward essentially as in former years and that the students and pupils have shown commendable diligence.

A new school building has been completed and a laboratory and shop building is now under construction, which will provide enlarged facilities for industrial education.

EDUCATION OF THE BLIND AND FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN.

Under section 4869 of the Revised Statutes and the act of June 16, 1880, respectively, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to cause the indigent blind and the feeble-minded of teachable age, belonging to the District of Columbia, to be instructed in some State institution at a cost not greater than that paid by such State for similar instruction. In pursuance of this authority, ten blind persons were under instruction at the close of the year at the Maryland Institution for the Blind at Baltimore, and eight feeble-minded children were at the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-minded Children at Elwyn, Penn. The amount charged for instruction at these institutions is $300 per year for each person.

Payment for the instruction of the blind is provided for in the "permanent annual appropriation" for that purpose. Prior to January 1, 1885, the appropriation for educating the feeble-minded was included in the amount annually appropriated for the support of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. At the last session of Congress a separate appropriation was made for this purpose, to cover the deficiency since January 1, 1885, and also an appropriation of $2,500 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887. This will provide for the expenses of the number now in the institution. The Department has recently been obliged to refuse admission to four applicants for the benefits of the statute, the available appropriation not being sufficient to provide for any addition to the number now under instruction.

THE TERRITORIES.

The general condition of the Territories shows marked and, in some instances, striking progress in population, taxable property, settlement of land, education, the mechanic arts, railroad enterprises, and many other of the elements which promise to make them great and prosperous States in the future.

The population of the Territory of Dakota for the year ended June 30, 1886, is estimated at 500,000, an increase during the year of 85,000. The present population of Montana is given at 110,000, and that of Idaho at 85,000, an increase of nearly 10,000 in each of these Territories during the year. Washington Territory now claims a population of 210,000.

In all the Territories the progress of settlement, as shown by the entry and purchase of lands, has been marked and rapid. In Dakota the quantity of land purchased from all sources by immigrants is estimated to aggregate 4,000,000 of acres, an area larger than that of the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island. One million four hundred and four thousand three hundred acres were acquired from the Govern ment in this Territory alone under the homestead and pre-emption acts during the year, and 12,316 acres were located by land-scrip. Claims initiated under the three general land laws were: Homesteads, 7,466; pre-emptions, 7,894; and timber-culture claims, 7,071.

The past year was not a favorable one for agriculture in the Territories. In Dakota and Montana scarcely more than half a crop was realized, and from those portions of the southern Territories where irriga tion has not been resorted to similar reports have been received. The farmers in many of the Territories have, however, done fairly well, because of the introduction of a greater variety of crops, and especially because of the large attention given to stock-raising. Cattle in the hands of numerous holders of small herds have been found very profitable, notably in Dakota.

The immense herds of Montana have, however, almost exhausted the pastures of that Territory. Owners of large numbers of cattle have been compelled in some instances to seek pasturage in the British possessions, and it is thought that the Territory has reached the limit of safe production under the system of large herds. The governor estimates that there are now pastured in Montana 1,500,000 head of cattle, 130,000 horses, and 2,000,000 sheep. In Idaho there are 500,000 head of cattle and horses and 250,000 sheep.

The low price of silver and copper has somewhat affected the production of those metals. In Arizona the yield is estimated at, gold, $1,000,000; silver, $7,500,000; a considerable falling off from the preceding year. Montana reports the gross value of the products of her mines for the year at $3,450,000 gold, $9,600,000 silver, $8,000,000 copper, and $1,250,000 lead. The product of the mines of Idaho is given