other labors, which do not admit of record. The sanitary company of the police have been actively employed, and with evident advantage to the health of the city.

This department suggested, in the last annual report, the expediency of creating a court for the trial of offences of a minor grade, and the subject is again presented for consideration.

During the year ending 30th of June, 1867, there were admitted to the Government Hospital for the Insane one hundred and nine patients, of whom eightyeight were males. The whole number under treatment was three hundred and ninety, of whom two hundred and seventy-three were males. The number discharged was seventy-seven, of whom sixty-six were males. The number of deaths was thirty-three, of whom nineteen were males. The whole number under treatment at the close of the fiscal year was two hundred and eighty, of whom one hundred and eighty-eight were males. More than half of these were from civil life. There have been two thousand three hundred and fifteen persons treated since the institution was opened, one thousand and sixty-four of whom were natives. The receipts during the past year amounted to one hundred and one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars and ninety-five cents, ($101,871 95,) and at its close there was a balance of two thousand four hundred and thirty six dollars and sixty-nine cents ($2,436 69) in the hands of the superintendent. Congress will, no doubt, cheerfully make the usual allowance for the support of the hospital. I recommend that an additional appropriation, for which an estimate has been submitted, be made for furnishing, lighting, and heating the unfinished part of the east wing of the main edifice, and for the purchase of land contiguous to the present grounds. The report of the board of visitors contains many interesting tables and an elaborate discussion of the proper treatment of persons afflicted with a peculiar form of insanity, of whom an unusually large number was admitted during the past year.

I have heretofore expressed my opinion of the admirable manner in which this institution has been conducted. Its present condition reflects the highest credit upon the accomplished superintendent and those associated with him in the administration of its affairs.

The Columbian Institute for the Deaf and Dumb is a private corporation. I referred to its history and its relation to the government in my last annual report. I respectfully invite attention to the views which I then had the honor to submit.

In addition to the payment of the charges for the education and maintenance of the pupils entitled to admission on the order of the Secretary of the Interior, Congress has advanced to this institution the sum of two hundred and sixty-four thousand and forty dollars and eighty-seven cents, ($264,040 87.) There are now twenty-three pupils from the District of Columbia, and three who are the children of persons in the military service of the United States. By the acts of February 16, 1857, and May 29, 1858, Congress agreed to pay annually one hundred and fifty dollars ($150) for the maintenance of each of such pupils. The directors requested an appropriation in gross for the support of the institution, instead of the payment for such pupils per capita. The act allowing such

charges should therefore be repealed, as Congress made the requested appropriation for that and the succeeding year, and it is confidently believed they will evince the same liberality for the ensuing fiscal year. At the last session the admission of ten pupils from the States to the collegiate branch of the institution was authorized, on the same terms and conditions as those prescribed by law to the residents of this District. This provision was annexed to the appropriating clause granting twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) for the support of the institution and the purchase of books and apparatus. Nine pupils availed themselves of this privilege, thereby entailing an unexpected burden upon the resources of the institution. The directors request, on this account, an allowance of three thousand dollars, ($3,000.) I have submitted an item therefor in the deficiency estimates for the current year. During the last fiscal year three pupils died, eleven were dismissed, and eight admitted. In accordance with the direction of the board of trustees, the president proceeded to Europe, to examine similar schools in Great Britain, Prussia, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. The result of his investigations is embodied in an able and interesting paper, which accompanies the report of the board.

The claims of such an institution are of the most imposing character. I am, nevertheless, of the opinion that when Congress shall have liberally provided for the indigent deaf mutes who reside in this District, or are the children of persons actually in the military or naval service, it will have fully discharged its duty, if not exhausted its constitutional power over the subject. The present buildings are more than sufficient for the ample accommodation of the government pupils. The board of directors, in addition to the school for the primary branches, desire to maintain a preparatory department, where the deaf mutes of the several States may be prepared for admission into the college proper. The studies in the latter will embrace as thorough and comprehensive a course of instruction in ancient and modern languages, and in the literary and scientific branches, as is furnished in the best American colleges. The indigent deaf mutes of the several States, who are competent to profit by these advantages, are to be maintained and instructed at the expense of the general government. It certainly was not the original intention of Congress to provide for the gratuitous instruction of these afflicted persons. If unable to incur the expenses of an education, they should appeal to individual munificence, or to that of the States in which they reside. The support of paupers is an appropriate subject of State legislation, and has never been regarded as falling within the province, or constituting a duty, of the general government. The arguments advanced to justify Congress in furnishing educational privileges for the indigent deaf mutes of a State would equally require a similar provision for the blind or lame, or those who, withont natural infirmities, desire collegiate instruction, but are excluded by their poverty from obtaining it.

Should these views be regarded as erroneous, however, and Congress deem it their constitutional duty to establish and maintain a national deaf mute college, the United States should control it, and be vested with a title to the grounds purchased by their means for its uses. The erection of buildings required for the accommodation of all the students who may desire instruction and mainten

ance free of charge will require a very large outlay, independent of the amount which, from time to time, must be advanced to meet the annual expenses of the institution. I take pleasure in adding that there is no other school in the country that surpasses this in the ability, zeal, and success with which the president and professors devote themselves to the intellectual and moral training of those committed to their care.

Congress, by an act approved June 1, 1866, incorporated the "Columbia Hospital for Women and Lying in Asylum." It was established for the treatment of diseases peculiar to women, and as a lying-in asylum, in which board, lodging, medicine, and attendance should be gratuitously furnished to those unable to pay therefor. At the date of the report of the board of trustees there were seventy-one patients. During the past year four hundred and fifty-one women obtained admission to the asylum, or received from it assistance and medical treatment. Congress, on the 2d day of March last, appropriated ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to aid in the support of this institution. The receipts from private donations were three thousand two hundred and eighty dollars and seventy-two cents, ($3,280 72,) and from patients two thousand one hundred and fourteen dollars and eighty-eight cents, ($2,114 88,) making an aggregate of fifteen thousand three hundred and ninety-five dollars and sixty cents ($15,395 60.)

Congress has always given its sanction, and, whenever they could be properly bestowed, its pecuniary contributions to every well-considered benevolent enterprise adapted to supply the wants or promote the interests of the District of Columbia. This institution is a private corporation, and maintains the same relations to the government as the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. The trustees have, however, determined to submit an annual report to the Secretary of the Interior, and to authorize, upon his order, the admission of patients whose indigence and helpless condition justify them in seeking eleemosynary aid. Few, if any, of the instrumentalities which the benevolence of the age has adopted to alleviate human suffering or minister to human wants present stronger claims to public sympathy than institutions of this description. Although in its infancy, and with scanty means, this asylum has liberally extended to its beneficiaries skiltul medical and surgical aid, and that considerate attention which their peculiar condition required. In consideration of the good already accomplished, and of the pressing necessity for extending the scope of its charities, the directors strenuously urge that it should be established upon a permanent basis. As that object cannot be attained solely by private benefactions, they request an appropriation by Congress of sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) for the purchase of a site and the erection of buildings. I cordially recommend this request to favorable consideration; but if granted, the organic act should be so amended as to secure to the United States a title to the real estate purchased, and an efficient control over the institution.

The respective departments and officers of the national government, the executive departments of the several States and Territories, and the legally designated public libraries and educational institutions of the United States, have been furnished, as far as practicable, with those copies of statutes, books and

congressional documents to which they are respectively entitled under existing laws. For a period of several years, on the completion of the printing and binding of the documents of a session of Congress, there have been delivered to the Department of the Interior four hundred and seventy complete sets of those which are known as "House documents," and only four hundred and twenty sets of "Senate documents;" thus placing in the custody of this department, after the close of each session of Congress, fifty sets of " House documents" without an equal number of "Senate documents." The statutes which relate to the printing, binding, and distribution of complete sets of public documents need revision. In closing this report, I should do injustice to the officers of this department were I not to declare my high sense of the very efficient manner in which they have discharged their arduous duties. I respectfully refer to the views, in regard to their compensation, presented in the concluding portion of my last annual report, and earnestly invoke for them the favorable consideration of Congress. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

O. H. BROWNING,

Secretary of the Interior.

The PRESIDENT.