Table showing persons inscribed, recommended, and employed, and those who were recommended but who did not report, from July 1, 1914, to June 30, 1915-Continued. The laboring people in Porto Rico are in great need & labor legislation. There are very few effective labor laws in proportion to the many existing labor problems requiring legislative action. We suggested to the legislature in our report of January, 1915, several laws for the protection and help of the laboring classes. Among these we insist in suggesting principally the following: (a) A law making the refusal to pay the just claims of labor a misdemeanor. (b) A law giving laborer's wages the preference over the claims of other creditors who have furnished materials, etc. (c) A law creating a mechanic's lien, whereby the workmen who have worked on any building have a lien on same equal to the amount of wages that is due them for such work. (d) An amendment to the public contract law providing that the bondsmen of any contractor with the insular government shall be responsible for the payment of the wages due to the laborers by the contractor. 9489°-WAR 1915-VOL 3--31 (e) An amendment to the present law regulating the payment of wages to workmen making compulsory the payment of wages in lawful money. (f) An act repealing the existing law of Porto Rico regulating the damages that may be recovered by injured employees, and providing new rules and procedure by which the new law suggested be practically enforced, as same is based upon scientific fundamental principles for true compensation to injured employees. CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. INSANE ASYLUM. The conditions of this asylum during the year have been satisfactory, but the capacity of the building does not correspond with the large number of insane patients that actually exists for admittance in the municipalities of the island. It continues to be a great and urgent need the construction of a new building for the insane asylum in the town of Rio Piedras, that might accommodate a larger number of patients, twice as many, at least, as the actual building holds. It is of great importance the large number of insane patients that are at present in the jails and emergency hospitals of the municipalities of the island, and that remain a long time in said places for lack of room in the insular insane asylum of San Juan, where they could be properly attended, thus losing the opportunity in many cases of being restored to society, individuals who because of not having received adequate treatment at the proper time, lose all probabilities of recovering. This is a matter of such importance that the attention of the legislature is called thereto, so that it may be considered as effectively as it requires. The latest statistics show that of the patients admitted to the insane asylum during the first month of their illness, 35 per cent are cured; of those admitted during their second month, 17 per cent recover; and 6 to 8 per cent of those admitted from their third month on. Within the conditions that the building now has, the insane patients have been attended to in the best possible manner by means of dances, cinematographic shows, physical exercises, with the "Spalding medicine ball," and the bowling alley, and now billiards will also contribute to the entertainment of the insane patients. During the year no epidemics have occurred and the conditions of health have been satisfactory. Among the patients admitted during the fiscal year up to June 30, 1915, there were 23 male and 11 female patients who suffered from uncinariasis In previous years we had several cases of pellagra that ended fatally. During this year the patients affected with this disease have been under a special diet, such as milk, eggs, vegetables, etc., and we have obtained good results in all cases. This result confirms the modern investigations that pellagra is an avetaminose disease, or deficiency disease, and with a prescribed nutritious diet it can be cured. By the dental office the following work has been performed: Amalgam fillings...... Treatments.... Cleaning of the teeth. Extractions.. 6 10 12 215 The receipts on account of pay patients during the fiscal year amounted to $10,146.50. The tables given below show the general movement of patients in the insane asylum, with the different specifications relative to the same. Left uncured, at the request of their guardians, during the fiscal year..... TABLE NO. 2.-Age, color, civil condition, and religion of patients remaining in the insane asylum on June 30, 1915. TABLE NO. 6.-Occupations of patients remaining in the insane asylum on June 30, 1915. TABLE NO. 7.-Mental diseases from which the patients remaining in the insane asylum on June 30, 1915, suffered. TABLE No. 8.-Mental diseases of the patients that were cured in the insane asylum during the fiscal year 1914-15. TABLE NO. 9.-Age of the patients that were cured in the insane asylum during the fiscal year 1914-15. 2311 TABLE NO. 10.-Mental diseases of the patients deceased in the insane asylum during the fiscal year 1914-15. TABLE NO. 11.-Age of the patients deceased in the insane asylum during the fiscal year TABLE NO. 12.-Intercurrent diseases which caused the death of the deceased patients during the fiscal year 1914–15. TABLE NO. 13.-Articles made by the patients during the fiscal year 1914-15. TABLE NO. 14.—Ratio of death for the last 10 years, July, 1905, to June, 1915. 824 150 278 293 80 139 25 BLIND ASYLUM. Patients in the asylum July 1, 1914 (41 men and 29 women).. Total.... Discharged cured (54 men and 27 women). Total.. Discharged improved (23 men and 11 women).. Total.. Died of intercurrent diseases.. Patients. 70 133 203 8] 122 34 88 6 Remaining on June 30, 1915 (54 men and 28 women). 82 |