Twenty-sixth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital, at Worcester. October, 1858.

  • State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twenty-sixth annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital, at Worcester. October, 1858. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    State paupers for one of the quarters of last year, was returned to the Treasurer of the hospital with several deductions made from the balance due the hospital. One deduction was to the amount of $622.24, being the amount already paid to the hospital, by the State, during the last six years for the support of a patient who, the agent of the Board of Alien Commissioners now decides, possessed, at the time of his commitment to the hospital, a legal residence in one of the towns of this Commonwealth, and consequently that the said town is liable for his support. In another instance the auditor has deducted $200 for the amount paid four years ago for the support of a patient who has not been in the hospital since that time. No ob¬ jections were made to these charges by the State authorities at the time they were paid, and now so long a time has elapsed that it is utterly impossible for the officers of the hospital to procure any legal proof that shall compel the towns to refund the amount taken by the State from the balance due the hospital. In some instances, in which the proofs of residence were deemed by the State auditor sufficient to warrant the deduction from our account, these proofs have been submitted to the legal adviser of the hospital, and he has declined to commence a suit against the towns designated because he did not consider such proofs strong enough to justify the risk of the action. It seems proper to the Trustees that if such deductions are to be made from the hospital accounts, there should be some limit to the time during which they shall be liable to such deduction, so that the hospital can find a remedy against the parties who may be legally liable. But it is the opinion of the Trustees that in the matter of the support of State paupers the hospital acts simply as the agent of the State, and any claims against any town for the sup¬ port of an insane pauper, should be prosecuted by the State and in its name, and that the hospital should be relieved from the burden of prosecuting for the board of a patient, whose support in any case, costs the institution more than it ever receives. Of all the public charities which are justly the pride and boast of this Christian Commonwealth, there are none which more warmly commend themselves to the sympathies and watchful care of every citizen than the institutions which she has erected for the care and cure of the insane. For there is no inhabitant of the whole State of any age or sex, no person however high his social position, how¬ ever strong his physical health, or however great and just his pride
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