A pool table was purchased for the use of the patients. Fifty more lawn benches were purchased and placed on the lawns for the use of the patients. The following improvements were made during the year: New floors were laid on halls of wards 15, 16 and 6, and also in sleeping rooms and sitting rooms on wards three and seven. The walls of the entire wards six, fifteen, and sixteen, all sleeping rooms of ward three, day rooms of wards one, two, and three, billiard room, rear hall in administration building, the interior of the annex, pump house, electric light room, and the new vegetable green house were painted during the year. New mattresses were made for ward ten. Electric lights were placed in all of the ward sitting rooms and lodge rooms. New locks were placed on the doors of all the wards and administration building. The laundry has recently been supplied with a new mangle, collar and cuff ironer and starcher. Forty-five hundred square feet of cement walks were laid on the grounds during the year. New beds are needed on ward twenty. New chairs are needed for some of the wards. New carpets are needed on wards two and four, and in many of the rooms occupied by the attendants, also in the rooms of the domestic and outside help. New pictures for the walls of wards nine, ten, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen. New furniture for employees' sitting rooms. One new steel boiler installed. Twenty-five thousand feet of cement walks should be laid next season. The horse barn should be torn down and replaced by a new building; the old building is not safe. The fire hose have been in use for a long time, and should be replaced with new hose; this will require about 1,200 feet. Two hose reels should be purchased also. Buildings to accommodate eighty acute cases, and one hundred and fifty chronic cases should be built at once; this amount of space will be necessary to accommodate the natural increase in insanity for the next few years. Also will provide for all the insane now in the county infirmaries in this district, which conforms to the law. (See Ohio Laws, 93v. 274) AMUSEMENTS. The patients were on the lawn every day during the summer months when the weather permitted. A large number of the male patients were employed during the summer on the grounds and farm, also in cleaning the large lake, which required a great amount of labor. We had our usual 4th of July celebration, which consisted of an extra dinner, band of music on the lawn during the day, and fire works in the evening. The display of fire works was enjoyed by the greater number of our patients and employees. We had during the year the usual weekly dance, except in the extreme hot weather, when we had a band concert every alternate week in the afternoon and evening on the lawn. We had but three other entertainments, one of which was given by the officers and employees. A large number of patients visited the Montgomery County fair. We had chapel service every Sunday morning; the usual attendance was about five hundred. Our employees have been uniformed during the year, which adds character to their appearance and suggests discipline. Drs. A. H. Dunham and Emma F. Young resigned during the year; Drs. C. D. Smith and Mary E. Cadwallader were appointed to fill the vacancies. I wish to return thanks to all the officers and employees, who have faithfully and loyally performed their duties. In conclusion, I wish to thank you, gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, for your courtesies and support, and hope that in the future I may merit your confidence and esteem. Respectfully submitted, J. M. RATLIFF, Superintendent. Dayton, Ohio, November 15, 1901. |