[507] Thus, in addition to the states named above, in the constitutions of Michigan, Oklahoma and Virginia the institutions are designated educational. In certain states also, as we have seen, the state superintendent of public instruction is _ex-officio_ member of the governing board, and in a few other states report is made to the department of education. In New York and North Carolina the schools are visited by this department. In a number also an educational classification is found in some of the statutory references or captions. See in particular on this subject, _Annals_, xlviii., 1903, p. 348; lviii., 1913, p. 327. [508] The earlier conception of the schools is in part illustrated by the name "asylum" given. British schools were often called asylums or hospitals, and were largely founded and supported by charity. Likewise in America the term "asylum" was frequently given to the schools when first started. But the name has now been generally discarded, and in but one state is the title retained, New Mexico. "School" is now mostly used, while in a few "institution" is employed. See _Annals_, _loc. cit._ See also Report of Board of Penal, Pauper and Charitable Institutions of Michigan, 1878, p. 41. [509] In Massachusetts appropriations were once "for beneficiaries in asylums for the deaf and dumb", but now they are "for the education of deaf pupils in schools designated by law". [510] In a legal sense, nearly all educational institutions can be called charitable, especially if they are private affairs, and gifts for such purposes are held in the law as for charitable purposes. See 4 Wheaton, 518; 2 How. (U. S.), 227; 14 How., 277; 44 Mo., 570; 25 O. St., 229. Not many cases have arisen in regard to the status of institutions for the deaf. In 1900 the Columbia Institution was held in the opinion of the Attorney-General to be under the department of charities, but Congress the next year declared it to be educational. See _Annals_, xlvi., 1901, p. 345. In Colorado an opinion was rendered that the school was educational alone, and not subject to the civil service rules, and this was later ratified in the constitution and by the legislature. Some of the courts have been inclined to view the institutions as charitable. In Nebraska the school for the deaf was at first considered an asylum and in the same class with almshouses, rather than educational. 6 Neb., 286. See also 43 Neb., 184. In New York the provision of the law allowing the State Board of Charities to inspect the Institution for the Blind was attacked, and it was held that, though the institution was partly educational and was visited by the department of education, yet the word charity was to be taken in its usual meaning, and if the institution as a private body educated, clothed and maintained indigent pupils, it was charitable. 154 New York, 14 (1897). [511] See Report of Illinois Board of Charities, 1872, pp. 13ff., 32ff.