On Sept. 14, 1927, the Department of Commerce made the following preliminary announcement of the results of the census of state and federal institutions for feebleminded and epileptic persons for 1926:
Complete returns have been received from thirty-six states, covering sixty, out of a total of seventy-five, state institutions for feebleminded and epileptic patients which were in operation in 1926. These sixty institutions had a total of 7,203 first admissions during the year 1926, as compared with 6,633 in 1922, or an increase of 8.6 per cent. These first admissions represent patients received during the year, who had not previously been under treatment in any institution for feeblemindedness and epilepsy.
For the thirty-six states represented, there were 7.6 first admissions per 100,000 of the general population, as compared with 7.4 first admissions per 100,000 in 1922. In other words, the number of first admissions has increased only a little more