REPORT

OF THE

MENDOCINO STATE HOSPITAL.

NOTE: For statistical tables, see Appendix.

REPORT OF THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT.
For the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1901.

To the Honorable the Board of Managers of the Mendocino State Hospital: GENTLEMEN: I herewith submit to you my annual report for the fifty-second fiscal year.

As another report will be required of the Superintendent before the next meeting of the Legislature, no extended report, other than the usual statistics, will be necessary.

The number of patients in Hospital at the end of the year was 611. The annual daily per capita was 43.3 cents. This includes the entire expense of food, clothing, fuel, care, and medical attendance, and salaries of the Board of Managers, officers, and employés.

Very respectfully,

E. W. KING, Medical Superintendent.

REPORT OF THE MEDICAL SUPERINTENDENT.
For the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1902.

To the Honorable the Board of Managers of the Mendocino State Hospital: GENTLEMEN: I herewith present you the ninth annual report of the Mendocino State Hospital for the year ending June 30, 1902.

The past year has marked quite an important epoch in our history,

because of the improvements which the appropriation of money by the last Legislature has enabled us to make.

Two hundred and seventy acres of land have been added to the Hospital tract. A large portion of this land is first-class Russian River bottom; nearly all of it will raise alfalfa if irrigated, which can easily be done with our water-supply; it is well adapted to raise grain and all kinds of garden vegetables, also the small and large fruits; in fact, almost everything necessary in the line of fruits and vegetables for the Hospital can be raised on this place.

The purchase of this land has enabled us to procure a dairy of thirty cows. Fifty acres have been sown to alfalfa, from which a small amount of hay will be procured this season, but next season it will furnish plenty of alfalfa hay and pasture for the dairy. This will give us good milk at a minimum cast. Probably forty to forty-five cows will furnish the Hospital with plenty of milk.

SEWER.

The last Legislature appropriated the sum of $2,500 for sewer pipe. This pipe is used for conducting the sewage from the Hospital to the land recently purchased, where it is to be used for irrigation and fertilization. This, it is believed, will effectually dispose of the sewage and prevent it from becoming a menace to health or a nuisance to others. This sewer system is now nearly completed and will be in operation in a short time.

ELECTRIC LIGHT.

About the first of March, a contract was let to Charles F. Sloane & Co., of San Francisco, to put in an electric light plant and wire the Hospital buildings for same. This plant was to be of a capacity of four hundred and fifty lights. The motive power was to be water and steam, the water power to be generated by a Pelton wheel of 45 horse-power, and the steam power by an engine of the same capacity. The water to run the Pelton wheel is taken from the supply pipe which furnishes the Hospital. This pipe is 12 inches inside diameter at the Hospital, and increases in size from 12 inches to 13, then 14, and finally near the dam to 24 inches. The water in the reservoir at the head of the pipe-line is about 300 feet above (altitude) the Hospital buildings, giving a pressure on the wheel of 135 to 140 pounds to the square inch. At this time (June 30) we are lighting with water power, with a large amount of waste water flowing over the dam. The reservoir above the dam has a capacity of about five million gallons. By increasing the height of the dam four or five feet its capacity would easily be more than doubled. This could be done at a small expense ($500 or $600), and would greatly increase the water-supply, especially in dry seasons. Should

the water-supply be short in the fall months, the dynamo will be run with steam until the rains increase the water-supply. So far the electric light plant has proved perfectly satisfactory; the light being clear and steady and it seems a great luxury after using dirty gasoline for years.

The expense of running the plant by water is practically nothing. The cost of wiring the buildings and putting in the lighting plant was $6,050, paid from our Contingent Fund. A brick building, 24 x 50 feet, was built by the patients and employés to house the plant, at a cost of about $900, paid also out of the Contingent Fund. The completion of this lighting plant will materially lessen the cost of lighting the Hospital and at the same time give us a good, clean light.

READING-ROOM FOR EMPLOYÉS.

During the last-year a large room in the basement of the Administration building has been fitted up for the employés. This is a great convenience. When off duty the employés can meet there for amusement or social intercourse. This will have a tendency to make them more contented and satisfied with their surroundings. The room has been nicely furnished, electric lights have been put in, and in winter it will be heated by steam.

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TRAINING SCHOOL.

Under the direction of the State Commission in Lunacy, training schools have been established in all of the State Hospitals, for the training of nurses and attendants for the insane. This is a decided step in advance, and will without doubt result in better and more systematic methods in handling this most unfortunate class of our citizens, in bettering their condition, and it is to be hoped it will result in a larger percentage of cures, as upon proper nursing depends largely their prospects of recovery. A class was formed in this Hospital in March, 1902. The course consists of two years of eight months each, with lectures and clinical instruction by the medical staff.

IMPROVEMENT OF GROUNDS.

During the fall of 1901 the unsightly grounds in front of the Superintendent's residence were greatly improved by confining the water of the creek to a proper channel, reinforcing its banks where necessary by planting willows to prevent the banks from washing in high water, and filling low places with earth. Nearly one thousand loads of loam were hauled and put in place, the whole leveled and trees and shrubs planted. The grounds around the hospital buildings have been laid out and as much work done on them as our limited means would permit, no money ever having been appropriated to this Hospital for improvement of the grounds.