may require it, introduce evidence as to the claims which these persons may have upon the state for an allowance. monwealth's attorney. 44. The following oath shall be administered to the jury: "You do swear that you will well and truly inquire, ch. 53, art. 2, and, from the evidence, say in your verdict, whether Form of oath A. B., the person whom you have in charge, is of to jury. unsound mind, and, if of unsound mind, whether he is an idiot or lunatic-that is, whether he was destitute of mind from infancy, or has lost it since his birth; and if he has lost it since his birth, that you will state when, and, as far as you can from the evidence, the cause of it. You will also inquire and state his birth and residence, and whether he has been brought into this state by any person, and by whom, for the purpose of becoming a charge upon the commonwealth. That you will find what estate, and the value thereof, he owns in possession, reversion, or remainder; whether his parents are alive; where they reside; and whether they have estate sufficient to support the person under trial; whether he is capable of laboring, in whole or in part, and what part, for his support." The judge shall instruct the jury upon the whole case, Judge to inso as to enable them to decide the question, whether jury. the defendant is an idiot or lunatic. struct the Ibid § 8. verdict or new Judgment on trial. 45. On return of the verdict, if the court is satisfied with the inquest, judgment shall be entered upon it according to the finding. If the judge who presides shall be of opinion the verdict is not sustained by the evidence, or is against law, he shall set it aside and be set aside. award a new inquest. Verdict may Ibid § 9. Personal pres son charged. 46. No inquest shall be held unless the person charged to be of unsound mind is in court, and personally in the presence of the jury. The personal presence of ence of the perthe person charged shall not be dispensed with, unless it shall appear by the oath or affidavit of two physicians that they have personally examined the individual charged to be of unsound mind, and that they verily believe him to be an idiot or lunatic, as the case may be, and that his Exception. condition is such, that it would be unsafe to bring him into court. 47. The circuit court clerk of each county shall transmit to Ibid § 12. list of pauper idiots. the auditor, on or before the 10th of September in Clerk to send each year, a list of the pauper idiots in his county; if he fail to do so without good cause, he shall be fined fifty dollars. All pauper idiots and lunatics may be sent, by order of a court to the lunatic asylum, and shall be and lunatics maintained, during the continuance of the malady asylum. and stay in the hospital, at the expense of the commonwealth. If not so sent, the expense of maintaining lunatics shall not be a charge upon the commonwealth. Pauper idiots may be sent to 48. In all inquests held in respect of persons alleged to be imbecile or incompetent to manage their estates, the court shall cause an oath to be administered to Ibid § 13. competent per sons. imbecile or in- the jury in such form as to ascertain, by the verdict, whether such person, by reason of bodily infirmity, disabling him or her from making their thoughts and desires known, or by reason of any infirmity or weight of age, is incompetent to manage his or her estate; and also what estate he or she owns in possession, reversion or remainder, and the value thereof. Ibid § 14, as amended 1882, ch. 55. Who may hold inquests. His powers. 49. Inquests under and according to this chapter shall, when a circuit court is in session in the county in which the inquest is held, be held only by such circuit court. When no circuit court is in session in the county, such inquest may be held by a judge of a circuit court or of a court of common pleas, or by a chancellor or vice-chancellor, or by the presiding judge of the county court, or by the judge of a city or police court. The officer who presides at such inquest may make all orders for the care of the person found to be of unsound mind; but if it is found upon the inquest that the insane person has any estate, it shall be the duty of the officer presiding at such inquest to certify the facts concerning said estate to the chancery court if there be one in the county where the inquest is held, or if not, then to the circuit court, and it shall be the duty of the judge of said chancery or circuit court, as the case may be, to make all necessary orders for the appointment of a committee and the security of the estate and care of the person found of unsound mind; but the officer holding the inquest may order the person found insane to the lunatic asylum when it would be proper for a court to do so, and may appoint a tem porary committee for that purpose, and take from him bond and surety payable to the commonwealth for a faithful discharge of the duties of his station. Upon which bond, for a violation of its stipulations, any person aggrieved, or the committee thereafter appointed by the court, may sue in the name of the commonwealth at their own costs. Ibid § 15. Disposition of papers inquest. 50. The papers pertaining to the inquest shall be delivered, by the officer holding the same, to the clerk of the court having jurisdiction, who shall file the same; prof and, at the next term of the court, a committee shall be appointed by the court, as though the inquest had been holden in term time, and such other orders made and taken as may be necessary to execute the provisions of this chapter. Whenever it shall be suggested to the court, by affidavit, that a person found of unsound mind has been restored to his proper senses, or that the inquest was false or fraudulent, the court shall forthwith direct the facts to be inquired into by a jury, in open court, and make all necessary orders or decrees in the premises. bid § 16. pare history Judge to pre 51. When a person shall be found a lunatic under the provisions of this chapter, the officer who presides at the inquest shall endeavor to ascertain and draw up a brief history of the patient's case, embracing the following points: of case. (1) Age; occupation; married or single; habits; educated or not. (2) If any, what relations have been insane. (3) Date of first attack; how exhibited; has it changed in character ever any at a former period. (4) Supposed cause; any peculiar illusion; and what; subject to fits, how long, and from what cause; natural temper and kind of affection towards relations. (5) Any attempt at suicide; if any, in what violence or propensity to mischief exhibited. (6) Periodic frenzy and lucid intervals, and duration of each. (7) What restraint has been imposed; what treatment used; and if bleeding, to what extent. (8) Any injury about the head ever received; any bodily disease from suppression of evacuations, eruptions, sores, or injuries. (9) Together with whatever else may be deemed material towards enabling the superintendent of the asylum to understand the case. Which statement or a copy, shall be sent with the record to the asylum, if the lunatic is sent. Ibid § 17. Costs when 52. Neither the county nor any relative of a lunatic shall be chargeable with the cost of his detention for one year in the asylum, if he be delivered there within six months after the first attack of his lunacy; nor shall a relative, in such case, be chargeable with the cost of his transportation.* lunatic is sent to asylum within first six months. Ibid § 18. attack to be certified. Ibid $19. When the ficate cannot 53. The court shall ascertain and certify as part of the order for the confinement of a lunatic in the asylum, the Date of first date of his first attack of lunacy, when it is intended to obtain the benefit of the above provision; but before it is allowed, the fact shall also be ascertained, upon proper proof, and certified by the circuit judge of the district. 54. If the certificate of the circuit judge cannot be obtained until after the commitment, the treasurer of the judge's certi- asylum shall, upon its production, refund the cost of be obtained. transportation to any relative paying the same. 55. The officer carrying a pauper lunatic or idiot, to either asylum or the feeble-minded institute, shall be paid Allowance for by the treasurer thereof [six cents] per mile for himself and each guard, going and returning, besides tolls and ferriages, and the same for the lunatic in going and in returning, if the person has been denied admittance or not received for want of room. But there shall be no charge for more than two guards, and only for one unless the officer ordering such person to the asylum authorizes two. If transportation, in whole, or in part could have been had by stage, steamboat or railway for less cost, no more than what ought to have been the actual cost shall be allowed.† Ibid § 20. transporta tion. Ibid § 21. 56. No officer shall be allowed for carrying an insane person who is a pauper to a lunatic asylum, unless he first to be made un- apply by letter to the superintendent thereof, and tion first made ascertain that the patient can be received, and that less applica tendent. he cannot be sent for by the officers of the asylum. to superinBut where the safety of the lunatic or others seem to require it, the court may order the patient to be carried to the asylum immediately, without his being sent for.* asy Ibid § 22. patients to be brought to the asylum. Ibid § 23. 57. The superintendent, immediately upon notice that a person has been ordered into confinement at the lum, shall cause him to be brought, and pay the ent to cause expenses of transportation. 58. Whoever shall bring or cause to be brought into any county or city of this commonwealth, from another state or county, any pauper idiot or lunatic, with the intent to make him a charge upon such county or city, or this commonwealth, shall be fined one hun- ulently. dred dollars, besides being liable at the suit of the county or city for all damages incurred thereby, besides the cost of transportation, and imprisoned not more than three months. Penalty of in troducing pauper idiots or lunatics fraud 59. No person not otherwise insane shall be sent to an asylum merely because he is subject to epileptic fits, or thereby rendered helpless. bid § 24. Epileptic fits. Ibid § be incaor may or der sale of estic or imbecile. tate of a luna 60. If the estate of a lunatic, or person adjudged to pable of managing his estate, be not sufficient to pay his debts, the same may, by a circuit or chancery court, be ordered to be sold, and proceeds distributed and estate settled as prescribed by law for the settlement of the estate of insolvent decedents. Criminal $ 156. Code, 1876, How question sauity tried. of defendant's 61. If the court shall be of opinion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant is insane, all Bullitt's proceedings in the trial shall be postponed until a jury be empaneled to inquire whether defendant is of unsound mind, and if the jury find that he is of unsound mind, the court shall direct that he be kept in prison or conveyed by the sheriff to the nearest lunatic asylum, and there kept in custody by the officers thereof until he be restored, when he shall be returned to the sheriff on demand, to be reconveyed by him to the jail of the county. 62. If the defense be the insanity of the defendant, the jury must be instructed, if they acquit him on that ground, to state the fact in their verdict, and there * Amended by act of 1876; see pl. 25 and 33 supra. $268. Proceedings if defendaut acquitted on |