The preceding figures represent only the number of patients who are treated for more than one day in hospital. The number also who are seen and prescribed for, outside of the hospital, will average about one hundred daily. Epidemics and contagion have not disturbed the inmates of the Institutions for the past year. Respectfully submitted, S. H. DURGIN, Resident Physician. REPORT OF THE PORT PHYSICIAN. TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: Gentlemen, — The Annual Report of hospital records and fees collected in quarantine for the year ending April 30, 1871, is herewith respectfully presented: Patients remaining in hospital May 1, 1870. Males. Females Discharged 3 29 9 38 41 28 4 32 Patients remaining in hospital May 1, 1871 . Number of persons at quarantine May 1, 1871 Number of persons received from city not sick 12 14 Whole number received who have not been sick Whole number admitted, sick and well 52 One man, not included in the above numbers, died on board steamer "Henry Morrison," ou his way from the city to quarantine; disease unknown. By order of the Board of Health, quarantine on vessels was observed from June 1, 1870, until November 1, 1870, during which time the following number of vessels were inspected and fees collected: The following bills have been collected for board of patients and disinfecting vessels: Collected on steamer "City of Antwerp " $90 00 10 00 Under a recent order of the Board of Health, vessels with sickness on board, at the time of arrival at this port, have been stopped during the past month. Two have brought small-pox patients, who have been taken to the quarantine hospital. The vessels required disinfecting, for which small charges were made, but are not yet collected. 59 00 $3,793 00 Respectfully yours, S. H. DURGIN, Port Physician. QUARANTINE STATION, DEER ISLAND, REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE BOSTON LUNATIC HOSPITAL. TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: Gentlemen, - On the first day of May, 1870, there were two hundred and twelve patients in the hospital, of whom one hundred and twenty were men and ninety-two were women. Fifty men and fifty-five women have been admitted, and fortysix men and thirty-eight women have been discharged, during the year. The number under treatment at the opening of the year was two hundred and twelve, while to-day it is two hundred and thirty-three. And, during the year, three hundred and seventeen insane and sick persons have been cared for, as well as we were able to do it with the means at command, in our six small, inconvenient, crowded and unventilated wards. Of the admissions, one hundred were by order of the Judge of Probate, and five by the Superintendent, three of the five making personal application for protection and care, and all of them appearing under clear emergency. For two of the five, the order of the magistrate was promptly issued, and the other three, having no legal claim upon us, were transferred to other hospitals as soon as their friends could be found, and the neces sary measures taken. A noticeable feature of the admissions the past year has been the prevalence, to an unusual degree, of severe and dangerous physical disease, compelling us, at the outset, to give the friends little or no hope, not merely of mental recovery, but of life. A proportionately large number have been found to be afflicted with chronic organic disease, especially of the brain, which, though not immediately dan gerous to life, would not admit of recovery, but must sooner or later terminate in death. But one case of delirium tremens has been sent here during the year, and that happened through the inability of the physicians to obtain accurate information in regard to it. Of the whole number of admissions, five had previously been inmates of this, and nine more of other hospitals. Of those discharged, twenty-seven were recovered, six were more or less improved, ten were not improved, and forty-two died. Six of the unimproved were transferred to other hospitals or institutions. Of the deaths, eleven were from consumption, six from general paralysis, five from exhaustion, four each from meningitis, paralysis and dysentery, two each from pneumonia, disease of the heart and obscure disease of the brain, one from accidental drowning, and one by suicide. The death from drowning was that of a young man who, after a residence of eighteen months here, had fully recovered from a severe attack of chronic melancholia. He was waiting until his friends could procure him employment. Bathing one day, as was his custom, in the salt water within the enclosure, he was seized with cramps and sunk. Though speedily raised, life was gone. The death by suicide was the second only that has occurred here in twenty years. The patient was well known in this community, and had been, for several years, one of the directors of this hospital. He had been a resident here about four months, and, though laboring under the severest form of depression, had exhibited no sign of suicidal tendency. He was always vigilantly cared for. In the morning of that day, he had a severe paroxysm of depression, but was easily lifted out of it, and through the day was thought to be unusually cheerful. Towards evening his attendant gave him his medicine, and took his directions for supper. Fifteen minutes later he was found quite dead at the lower foot of his bedstead. It was, doubtless, a suicidal impulse which swept down upon him and bore him re |