"no member of said board, or their secretary, shall be directly or indirectly interested in any contract for building, repairing or furnishing any institution, poor-house or jail, which they are authorized to visit and inspect; nor is any officer of any such institution, jail or poor-house, eligible to appointment on the board."

The secretary is the executive officer; he is appointed by the board and holds office subject to its pleasure. Besides performing the clerical and statistical work of the board, he is expected to visit annually every jail and poor-house in the state, and quarterly, each of the state institutions subject to the inspection of the board; members of the board joining in this inspection so far as practicable. These visits are made without warning; the inspection is thorough and complete.

The state institutions subject to the inspection of the Board of Corrections and Charities are the state prison, state reformatory, state reform school, the hospital for insane, the schools for the deaf, blind and feeble minded, the state public school and the state soldiers' home. These institutions make monthly reports to the board and their expenses are classified in the office of the board according to a uniform schedule. The board publishes a quarterly summary of the movement of population and the financial transactions of the institutions for the information of the officers and trustees of the institutions and the public.

The board is prepared to furnish plans for jails and lock-ups to county commissioners and village officers on request, and to give advice with reference to plans for county poor-houses.

The board is designed to co-operate with the officers having charge of charitable and correctional institutions in the state for the promotion of efficiency and economy of administration, for the securing of fit and convenient buildings at reasonable cost, for conserving the best interests of the needy and dependent citizens of the state, and at the same time cutting off, so far as possible, the springs of pauperism and crime.

THE MINNESOTA HOSPITAL FOR INSANE.

The state legislature, at its session in 1866, passed an act es tablishing the Minnesota Hospital for Insane, and appointed commissioners to locate the same. It was located at St. Peter, the citizens generously presenting the state with a fine farm of

FIRST HOSPITAL FOR INSANE, ST. PETER, MINN.

two hundred and ten (210) acres, one mile south of the city. An appropriation of fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars was made for temporary provision and support of the insane.

At the session of the legislature of 1867, forty thousand ($40,000) dollars were appropriated for a permanent building on the farm provided. Plans were obtained, and the building commenced. Temporary quarters had been provided and opened for the reception of patients, in October, 1866, to which the patients, previously boarded at the hospital in Iowa, were brought. Dr. Samuel E. Shantz, of Utica, New York, was elected by the trustees, superintendent and physician. Under Dr. Shantz the temporary hospital was organized and directed until his death in August, 1868, when he was succeeded by Dr. C. K. Bartlett, of Northampton, Massachusetts, who is still in office.

Appropriations were made from year to year for building purposes, until the plans were completed in 1876. The admission of patients, and gradual increase kept the rooms constantly full; and since 1877 the accommodations have been crowded.

The hospital building is of hammered limestone, the walls are lined with brick, and the roof slated. It contains a centre building four stories, with offices and the chapel, and two wings. three stories each, containing nine separate halls for distinct classification of patients, with comfortable accommodations for five hundred persons and the necessary attendants. The additional buildings are a laundry, boiler and engine house, gas house, carpenter shop, ice house, barn, straw shed and root cellar, granary and carriage house, slaughter house and pump house.

On the fifteenth of November, 1880, about seven o'clock in the evening, fire was discovered in the basement of the north wing, occupied by male patients, and appeared to have several points of origin at the same time. The progress of the flames was so rapid, and the halls so quickly filled with a dense smoke, that the patients were removed with great difficulty, and several attendants and citizens nearly lost their lives in their heroic efforts to save the unfortunate inmates. The whole north wing, except the stone and some of the brick walls, was destroyed, with all the bedding and furniture and most of the clothing.

The next morning forty-four male patients were missing, but during that and the following day several were returned from the

neighborhood, the whole number being finally reduced to twentyfour missing, the remains of whom were believed to have been found in the ruin. Some died after the fire, mostly on account of injuries and exposure at that time.

The legislature of 1881 promptly made an appropriation of $90,000 to repair the burned wing, which amount was subsequently increased $15,000 at the extra session, when the outer walls of the building were found to be more damaged than at first supposed, a part of which had to be taken down. The wing, rebuilt in a fire-proof manner, with iron joists and brick arches, has been occupied since 1882, and during the past year the basement floors of the south wing, centre building and laundry have been made fire-proof.

An appropriation of $1,500 was promptly made by the legislature after the fire of 1880, for waterworks for better protection, and expended for that purpose, giving us a steam pump of 450 gallons capacity per minute, and a reservoir containing 135,000 gallons of water, 160 feet above the basement floor of the buildings, and from which water is carried in an eight-inch pipe to all parts of the hospital, having 15 hydrants at convenient points always ready for immediate use.

Two detached wards, each two story and one with an attic, have been built for the quiet class of patients, at a cost of $100,000, each accommodating 230 persons. They are of brick, the basement story with iron beams and brick arches, and the whole practically fire-proof. These wards are located within 60 feet of the extreme ends of the main building, and it is contemplated to connect both with corridors one story high, to facilitate communications with all parts of the hospital. There are now comfortable accommodations for 1,000 patients, and the present number is 958.

A storehouse with offices for steward and clerk is now being built, for which an appropriation of $5,000 was made by the last legislature.

THE SECOND MINNESOTA HOSPITAL FOR INSANE.

This institution is located at Rochester, Olmsted county, and the history of its organization is as follows:

By a special law passed by the legislature of 1874, it was decided to levy a tax of $10 on all liquor dealers to raise a fund for