PART L the poor-house; so that preference may be given, in the admission of patients, to recent cases, or cases of insanity of not over one year's duration. They may discharge and deliver any patient, except one under criminal charge as aforesaid, to his relatives or friends, who will undertake with good and approved sureties for his peaceable behavior, safe custody and comfortable maintenance, without further public charge. So amended by Laws of 1844, ch. 337.

Patients of

the criminal class.

Patients

discharged

S42. A patient of the criminal class may be discharged by order of one of the justices of the supreme court, or a circuit judge, if upon due investigation it shall appear safe, legal and right to make such order.

S43. No patient shall be discharged without suitable clothto be suita- ing; and if it can not be otherwise obtained, the steward bly clothed. shall, upon the order of two managers, furnish it, also money not exceeding twenty dollars, to defray his necessary expenses until he reaches his friends, or can find a chance to earn his subsistence.

Assessors

to ascertain

of insane

persons yearly.

S44. It shall be the duty of the assessors in each town and the number Ward in the state, every year, to make diligent inquiry, and ascertain with accuracy the number and names of all insane persons in said town or ward, and to make a list of the same with the best account they can get, in each case of the patient's age, general health, habits and occupation, kind, degree and duration of insanity, and pecuniary ability of self and relatives liable for his support. They shall send this list, with all the facts brought down to the latest period, to the clerk of the county, by the first day of August; who shall carefully condense the facts exhibited, and mail the same to the treasurer of the asylum at Utica, without delay. No county clerk shall receive any compensation for any services performed under this act.

Meaning of

terms used

See Laws of 1864, ch. 418. Post, vol. 6, p. 293. [Section 45 temporary.]

$46. The terms "lunacy," "lunatic" and "insane,” as used in this act. in this act, include every species of insanity, and extend to every deranged person, and to all of unsound mind other than idiots; the word "oath" includes "affirmation;" the words "justice" and "justices" mean "justice of the peace," "justices of the peace;" the word "overseer means overseer of the poor," and "county superintendent" means "superintendent of the poor;" the word "asylum" and "institution" means "State Lunatic Asylum;" a word denoting the singular number is to include one or many; and every word importing the masculine gender only may extend to and include females.

Expenses

of managers

$47. The managers of the State Lunatic Asylum shall to be paid. receive no compensation for their services, but shall receive their actual and reasonable travelling and other expenses, to be paid on the warrant of the comptroller, on the rendering of their accounts.

CHAP. XX.

made for

348. All purchases for the use of the asylum shall be made All purcha cash, and not on credit, or time; every voucher shall be ses to be taken duly filled up at the time it is taken, with every abstract cash. of vouchers for money paid shall be proof on oath that the voucher was filled up and the money paid therefor at the time the voucher was taken; and the managers shall make all needful rules and regulations to enforce the provisions of this section.

deficiency

money may

349. If the managers shall find that the funds at their com- In case of mand will prove insufficient to carry on the asylum, they may of funds apply to the Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and be advanced Attorney-General, specifying the purchases to be made, and if the Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller and Attorney-General shall be of opinion that the purchases are necessary, they may make an order that a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars in any one year be advanced to the managers by the Comptroller out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

under act of

$50. So much of the fourth section of the act to authorize Powers the establishment of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, 1836. passed March 30, 1836, as provides for the appointment of three commissioners, is hereby abolished; all the powers conferred upon said commissioners by said act, or any subsequent act of the legislature, are hereby conferred upon the managers appointed by this bill.

to take

$51. This act shall take effect immediately except its re- Act when quirements for sending the insane to the asylum, which shall effect. take effect as soon as the managers' notice of the asylum being ready as aforesaid, shall have been published for two weeks in the state paper.

CHAP. 98.

AN ACT in relation to the State Lunatic Asylum.

PASSED April 22, 1846.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

[Sections 1, 2, 3, temporary.]

Second assician may

sistant phy

be appointed.

$4. The managers of said asylum shall have the power, on the nomination of the superintendent of said asylum, to appoint a second assistant physician to said asylum, whose salary shall be fixed and paid in the same manner now provided by law in relation to the other resident officers of said asylum. $5. The managers of the said asylum are authorized, under Surplus wa the direction and subject at all times to the control of the how to be acting canal commissioner, having charge of the Chenango canal, to use the surplus water, discharge around or through the fifth lock on said canal, to operate a pump, to supply said

ter of canal

used.

PART L

Third as

sician.

asylum with water, from said canal or from Nail creek, in case the said commissioner shall be of opinion that the same can be done without detriment to the navigation of said canal.

CHAP. 282.

AN ACT in relation to the State Lunatic Asylum.

PASSED April 10, 1850; "three-fifths being present."

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

S 1. The managers of the State Lunatic Asylum are authosistant phy-rized in their discretion to appoint on the nomination of the superintendent of said asylum, a third assistant physician, whose salary shall be fixed and paid in the same manner as those of the other resident officers of said asylum.

Indigent persons, not pau

$2. No person in indigent circumstances not a pauper, shall be admitted into the asylum on the certificate of a Den to be county judge, made under and pursuant to the provisions of

pers, when admitted.

Judge to give notice

tion to superintendent of poor.

the twenty-sixth section of the act to organize the State Lunatic Asylum, and more effectually to provide for the care, maintenance, and recovery of the insane, passed April 7, 1842, unless such person has become insane within one year next prior to the granting of such certificate by the county judge, and it shall be the duty of said judge when an application is of applica made to him pursuant to said twenty-sixth section of said act, to cause such reasonable notice thereof and of the time and place of hearing the same to be given to one of the superintendents of the poor of the county chargeable with the expense of supporting such person in the asylum if admitted, or if such expense is chargeable to a town, or city then to an overseer of the poor of such town or city as he may judge reasonable under the circumstances and he shall then proceed to enquire as to the time when such person became insane, and shall in addition to the requirements of said twenty-sixth section state in his certificate that satisfactory proof has been adduced before him, that such person became insane within a year next prior to the date of his certificate. On granting such certificate the judge may in his discretion, require the friends of the patient to give security to the superintendent of the poor of the county to remove the patient from the asylum at the end of two years, in case he does not sooner recover. When a patient who is admitted into the asylum on the certificate of a county judge, given pursuant to the twenty-sixth section of the aforesaid act, has remained in the asylum two years, and has not recovered, the superintendent of the asylum shall send notice by mail to the overseer of the poor of the town where the patient resided at the time of his admission into the asylum, or to the county judge of the county from which he

was sent, that such patient has remained two years in the asylum and has not recovered, and that he should be removed from the asylum, and that in case he is not removed the expense of his support will be chargeable to the county until he is so removed, and then such expense shall be chargeable to the county accordingly, but in every case where a patient admitted into the asylum pursuant to the provisions of the twenty-sixth section of said act, shall have remained there two years, and has not recovered, the managers of the asylum may, in their discretion, cause such patient to be returned to the county from which he came, and charge the expense of such removal to the county.

Sections 3 and 4 temporary.] Ante, p. 24.

CHAP. 446.

AN ACT to amend the act entitled, "An act to organize the State Lunatic Asylum, and more effectually to provide for the care, maintenance, and recovery of the insane," passed April seventh, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two.

PASSED July 9, 1851.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

CHAP. XX.

31. The county judge of each of the counties of this state, Power of is hereby authorized to send all such indigent lunatics, be- cont longing to each county, as may be brought before him, either to the county poor house or to the state lunatic asylum, as in his judgment may be for the best interests of all concerned.

CHAP. 502.

AN ACT to establish an asylum for idiots, and making an appropriation therefor.

PASSED July 10, 1851; "three-fifths being present."

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

how ap

31. The governor shall, by and with the advice and con- Trustees nt of the senate, appoint five trustees, who, together with pointed. the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state and comptroller, shall be trustees of an institution for the education of idiots, to be called "The Asylum for Idiots," with power to establish rules and regulations for the government of the asylum.

32. The said trustees shall procure a building suitable for the education of such idiots as may be selected by said trus

Building to cd.

be procur

idiots, how

PART I. tees not exceeding twenty, and they shall have power to employ all necessary teachers, keepers and assistants. Selection of $ 3. The said number of idiots shall be selected from those made. whose parents or guardians are unable to provide for their support, some of them from each of the judicial districts of this state, and the trustees are authorized to receive such additional number of idiots as can be conveniently received into the asylum on such terms, and on the payment of such sum as the trustees may deem just.

Annual report.

Number of

selected for

instruction.

[Section 4 temporary.]

$5. The trustees of this institution shall make an annual report on or before the first day of February in each year, to the legislature, of the condition of the institution.

СНАР. 159.

AN ACT making appropriations for the continuance and enlargement of the State Asylum for Idiots.

PASSED April 11, 1853; three-fifths being present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

[Sections 1 and 2 temporary.]

$ 3. There shall be received, and be supported gratuitously, pupils to be in the said asylum, sixty-four pupils, to be selected in equal gratuitous numbers, as near as may be, from each judicial district, from those whose parents or guardians are unable to provide for their support therein; and such additional number of idiots as can be conveniently accommodated may be received into the asylum, by the trustees, on such terms as they may deem just.

Pupils how

CHAP. 163.

AN ACT appropriating moneys for the completion of buildings for the New York Asylum for Idiots, and to provide for the clothing of the pupils in the same.

PASSED April 5, 1855; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

S3. The supervisors of any county in the state from which supported. state pupils may be selected and received into the said asylum for idiots, and whose parents are unable to furnish them with suitable clothing, are hereby authorised and required, while such pupils are under instruction, to raise a sum of money for this purpose, not exceeding twenty dollars in any one year, for each pupil from said county.