The figure representing the total expense, for twenty-two months, will not be the same as the total cash disbursements: because, first, a portion of the cash disbursements were for expenses of the year 1874; and second, the expenses of 1875-6 have not all been paid, as has been explained above.

The ordinary expenses of the institutions are paid out of the appropriations made for that purpose, and from the petit or contingent funds derived from receipts from other sources than the state treasury. In the case of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, under authority of section one of the act for the completion of the school building, all unexpended balances in the hands of the treasurer on the first day of July, 1875, or so much thereof as might be necessary, were appropriated for that purpose. The balance of the petit fund, on the day named, was $10,796 85, and this entire amount was consumed upon the building. In all other cases the petit fund is reckoned as part of the ordinary expense fund.

For the information of the General Assembly as to the disposition made of the ordinary expense funds, we furnish the following tables.

It is not necessary to remark at any great length upon these tables, as they are sufficiently clear, and the detailed items of expense included under the several headings are fully set forth in the financial statement contained in the several institution reports.

It will be observed that the principal item of cost is for salaries and wages. This fact has sometimes furnished an apparent basis for criticism. But it must be remembered that the persons for whose benefit the institutions are erected and maintained are helpless and must be cared for. They are ignorant and must be instructed. They are children and must be nurtured. If they were capable of self-direction, they would not need the shelter and support afforded them. Not being capable of self-direction, others must perform the services necessary for their relief from the misfortunes of which they are the unhappy victims, and this service cannot be rendered gratuitously, nor do the tax-payers of the state desire that it should be. We can assure the legislature from our personal knowledge and observation, that there are few, if any, supernumeraries or drones in any of the institutions subject to our inspection. Neither are the salaries paid, as a rule, larger than is necessary to secure the right kind of service-competent, efficient, humane and trustworthy. In some instances, they appear to us to be rather high for the amount and kind of service rendered; in others, they are surprisingly low. But in order that the General Assembly may form its own conclusions as to this point, we call attention to certain tables printed elsewhere in this report, showing the number of employees, the nature of the service rendered, and the rate of compensation for the fiscal year 1875-6.

The second principal item is for "food." The daily expenses for each inmate, including the officers and employees, is shown in the following table, for the last year only.

The lowest average shown is for the Reform School, about eight and two-thirds cents per day, which is accounted for by the fact that the inmates receive prison-fare. The other institutions range in inverse proportion to the number of inmates-a larger number of inmates costing less per capita for food than a smaller number. The highest

average is in the Eye and Ear Infirmary, which is in the city of Chicago, where prices are comparatively high, and it has the fewest inmates. The table set at the infirmary is probably better than is necessary, and this expense ought to be reduced somewhat in the next two years. The average for all the institutions is a little less than fourteen and a quarter cents per day for each person fed, which certainly does not seem unreasonable.

"Fuel" is a very heavy item of expense in the institutions. There are two reasons for this: the area to be heated is immense, and vastly larger than any one who has not visited a public institution would be likely to imagine; and they are all heated by steam, a mode of heating. whose convenience, cleanliness and security have recommended it for general adoption, but which nevertheless has its disadvantages, among which must be reckoned its permanent as well as original cost. A portion of the heat evolved from the coal is lost in the process of generating the steam, and the steam parts with a portion of its heat by condensation, before doing the work assigned to it. Then, in severe or very cold weather, the steam must be kept in circulation by night as well as by day, to prevent the bursting of the pipes by accidental freezing. We call attention to the comparatively small cost of heating the building at Jacksonville, now occupied by the Feeble-Minded Children, by means of stoves; but the presence of the stoves is a constant source of anxiety and of peril, not only to property but to life. The amount paid for fuel at the Northern Hospital for the Insane, appears to be and is excessively large. Besides the greater length of the winters and the lower average temperature in the region of Elgin than in localities farther south, the truth is, that the heating apparatus and the ventilation of that institution are not well planned, and require material modifications. The authorities of the hospital have adopted plans for such alterations as, in the opinion of Carlyle Mason, of Chicago, an expert, will greatly reduce the annual consumption of coal at Elgin, and those plans will be executed whenever the General Assembly makes the necessary appropriations. This subject will come up again for notice in the present report.

The outlay for "clothing, bedding, etc.," is also large, especially in the hospitals for the insane, where there is much destruction by patients. The expense for clothing is not so great as it appears, however, for the reason that it is charged to the inmates or to the counties by whom they are sent, and the bills collected, so that there is a petit incomefrom this source. This will appear more clearly from the following table, which exhibits the total outlay for clothing, etc., and the amount collected on this account, in each of the institutions, for each of the years 1874-5 and 1875-6. The income, of course, should not, year by year, equal the expenditure, because in the expenditure is included