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For the Indigent Blind at the Pennsylvania Institution for the
year 1856, there were expended $950; and for the year 1857,
$500.

For the Indigent Blind at the Maryland Institution for the year
1856, there were expended $1,737.08; and for the year 1857,
$4,016.60.

But six warrants have been issued to beneficiaries to the Deaf
and Dumb Institute since my last message, two of whom have
not been reported as admitted. There were at last report fifteen
pupils in the Institution enjoying the beneficence of the State.

In the Pennsylvania Institution for the instruction of the Blind
there are but two beneficiaries of this State whom it is deemed
advisable to permit to remain and complete their education.

In the Maryland Institution for the instruction of the Blind,
there are eighteen pupils. These together with the two now in
the Pennsylvania Institution make up the number of twenty, for
whose education and support the State provides. The report re-
ceived from the Superintendent represents that the moral, social
and intellectual advancement of the pupils has been all that could
have been reasonably desired. The Institution can no longer be
regarded as an experiment. All it needs is the means to carry on
and enlarge the plan now successfully initiated to elevate an af-
flicted but most interesting portion of the human family. The
departments, with the exception of subsistence and raiment, are
scantily supplied, and the deficiencies in the apparatus of the
school, the furniture of the house, &c., subject the officers to con-
siderable inconvenience.

In addition to private subscriptions, the President and Directors
have contributed at least $10,000, and there is still a debt of $6,-

000   upon the property, the interest of which has to be supplied
from the annual income.

There is abundance of ground, but no means to enlarge the build-
ing so as to make it suitable for the purposes required, or to build
the work-shops necessary for the development of the pupils so as to
render them more independent and their labors more valuable.
By providing for the education of thirty instead of twenty indigent
blind pupils, and appropriating $15,000 for 1858, and a similar
amount for 1859, it is thought that the Institution will receive an
impetus which will place it upon a permanent basis approximating
to that of similar Institutions in other States. With a view to this

I  earnestly recommend it to your favorable consideration. It is a
noble charity and its continuance and prosperity will reflect undy-
ing credit upon its friends.

Maryland Hospital.—I have received from the President and
Visitors of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, a communication
calling my attention to the financial condition of that Institution,