disease. Four dispensaries treat patients afflicted with tuberculosis, exclusively, and in eighteen of the larger dispensaries are separate clinics for that class of patients. Respectfully submitted, STEPHEN SMITH, M. D., December 31, 1909. Committee. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ALMSHOUSES. To the State Board of Charities: The Committee on Almshouses respectfully submits its report for the year ending September 30, 1909. Two inspectors are employed in almshouse inspection, who made 160 inspections during the year. The almshouses in each judicial district are, as a rule, visited by the commissioner of the district, and inspected twice a year by the inspectors of the Board. Reports of inspection are graded into three classes by the Board, upon the recommendation of the commissioner, the grading being according to both plant and administration. Copies of the reports are then sent to the superintendents of the poor and boards of supervisors in the several counties. The reports are usually read at meetings of the boards of supervisors and at this time they receive newspaper publicity. Subsequently they are often printed in full in the Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors. All this results in delay and reports of inspection do not generally gain publicity until months after they are written. Many of the recommendations concern seasonal conditions. Recommendations for better heating, warmer bedding and more underclothing do not seem pertinent to supervisors in midsummer, nor will the recommendation of door and window screens receive the most favorable consideration during the winter. An inspector may report a drought at some almshouse and recommend prompt action to improve the situation. By the time the report is under consideration the drought may be past. Committees of supervisors sometimes go to the almshouse to investigate conditions of uncleanliness many months after the inspector described them, and thus fail to corroborate the inspector's statement. In short, certain features of the reports may often be out of date before they are received and acted on. Local officers and |