in the previous year. The present accommodations, consisting of one room 12 by 18 feet, are inadequate and totally unfit for such work. It is necessary to treat men, women, and children, and all classes of diseases, in this one room, under the most unfavorable circumstances.

In my last report the propriety of establishing a children's ward was urged. It is a pleasure, therefore, to announce that one of the wards is now being altered for the accommodation of children. The plans embrace 12 beds, 2 isolating rooms for suspected contagious diseases occurring among them, a surgical dressing room, a diet kitchen, and other appointments necessary to a children's department. This work will be completed in a few weeks, and the hospital will be in a position to give succor and care to many of that portion of humanity who apply for treatment.

A room for examining patients who apply for admission has been fitted up and made sufficient to meet the present demands. Its equipment has proven very advantageous. Since its existence three patients applying having been discovered to have smallpox, it was possible under the circumstances to properly isolate them in this room until the health department removed them. Heretofore there was no room for examination, and it was necessary to admit to the ward before examination. Many other improvements of minor importance were made during the

year.

NEEDS.

It becomes necessary to reiterate the plea for new and modern hospital buildings. During the past year there has been ample illustration of the depressing condition which confronts the inmates who occupy such ill-adapted frame buildings and the pressing and urgent necessity of more substantial brick structures. The present frame structures are so dilapidated and exposed that it is practically impossible to heat them, especially during such severe weather as was experienced last winter, when cold air and snow found easy access to the wards through the many crevices that are beyond repair. It is necessary to rely wholly on stoves to furnish such heat as can be secured, and some of the wards remain cold, damp, and moldy through quite a period in spite of the 500 tons of coal consumed. After escaping the dangers of winter, the perils of summer come. During one of the recent storms the frame buildings narrowly escaped destruction. Some of them visibly swayed and rocked, while a portion of one was completely demolished. It was only through the self-sacrificing devotion of the nurses and their remarkable presence of mind that a frightful panic was averted among the poor and helpless sufferers. A fire starting among these inflammable structures would find splendid fuel for a fearful conflagration that would result in indescribable injury and death.

The board of visitors to the Freedmen's Hospital, in referring to the needs of this institution in their report to the Secretary of the Interior, dated June 24, 1898, expressed themselves very forcibly concerning the immediate and urgent need of new buildings. Among other things they said: "These buildings are frame structures, built on the old army barracks plan of more than thirty years ago, and are wholly unfitted for modern hospital purposes. These buildings are not connected, and in all kinds of weather-winter and summer-convalescent patients are compelled to expose themselves in going to their meals in the dining room in the kitchen building. Further than this, the diet for the patients who are unable to leave their beds must be carried on trays