bid § 15. resident off Exemption of cers and at . and assistants actually and regularly employed therein, shall, during the time of such employment, be exempt from serving on juries, from all assess- tendants. ments for labor on highways, and in time of peace from service in the militia; and the certificate of the superintendent of the fact of such employment shall be sufficient evidence thereof. id § 16. records. Trustees' 133. The trustees shall keep, in a book provided for that purpose, a full and true record of their doings, which shall be open at all reasonable times to the inspection of the governor, the comptroller, the state board of charities, and of all persons whom they, or either of them, or either house of the legislature, may appoint to examine the same. 134. The trustees shall maintain an effective inspection of the asylum, for which purpose they shall make fre- bid § 17. quent visitations thereto, a majority of them at Trustees' visits. least once every three months, and the whole board once a year, at the times and in the manner prescribed in the bylaws. In a book kept for that purpose, the visiting trustees shall note the date of each visit, the condition of the asylum and inmates, with their opinion thereon, which all the trustees present shall sign. The general results of such inspection, with such suggestions for improvement as they may have recommended, shall be inserted in their annual report to the legislature. Compensation 135. The trustees shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall receive such reasonable traveling bid $19. and other expenses incurred necessarily by them as of trustees. the comptroller shall approve, which shall be paid to them by the treasurer of the asylum. Purchases. 136. All purchases for the use of the asylum shall be made for cash, and not on credit or time; every voucher Iid § 19. taken for the same shall be filled up at the time it is taken; every abstract of vouchers for money paid shall have attached thereto the oath of the steward that such vouchers were filled up and receipted, and the money paid therefor, at the time or times the same is therein purported to have been done, and the trustees shall make all needful rules and regulations to enforce the provisions of this section. 137. The trustees of said asylum, as portions of the building Ibid § 20. Removal of chronic insane from counties; to be county charge. Ibid § 21. Discharge of patients; board of charities. from time to time may be completed for the reception of the insane, shall give notice thereof to the state board of charities, and also as to the number of patients they may be ready to receive. The chronic pauper insane, from the poorhouses of the counties. which may be designated by the state board of charities therefor, shall be sent to the said asylum herein established, by the county superintendents of the poor; and such numbers of the chronic insane pauper inmates of state lunatic asylums, from the counties thus designated, as may be discharged therefrom not recovered, and who continue a public charge, shall also be sent to said asylum; and all such patients shall be a charge upon the respective counties from which they are sent, whether such patient shall be sent by the superintendent of the poor, or by order of any court or officer thereof, or from lunatic asylums. 138. The trustees, upon the superintendent's certificate of entire recovery, may discharge any patient to the care of his or her friends, or to the care of the superinvisits of state tendent of the poor; or they may discharge any patient, upon the superintendent's certificate that such patient is harmless and will probably continue so, and is not likely to be improved by farther treatment in the asylum, to his or her friends who will present sufficient evidence that they are able to maintain and care for the same properly. They may also discharge and deliver any patient as aforesaid, whose relations or friends will undertake with good and approved sureties for his or her peaceable behavior, safe custody, and comfortable maintenance without further public charge, and the bond of such sureties shall be approved by the county judge of the county from which such patient was sent, and shall be filed in the county clerk's office of said county. Upon the presentation of a certified copy thereof the trustees may . discharge such patient; and in all such cases the trustees shall forthwith notify the superintendent of the poor of the proper county of such discharge and such guarantees. The state board of charities shall, by a specially appointed committee, annually visit the asylum, and on a personal inspection and due examination of its official records, and on conferring with the superintendent, may direct the discharge or removal to the counties from whence they come of any quiet and harmless nia § 22, asylum; intendent to Removal from county super pay expenses of; refusal of ent to pay. superintend chronic insane in the asylum, if in the judgment of the committee their health and comfort can properly be provided for by the superintendents of the poor of their respective counties. 139. Whenever the trustees of said asylum, or the state board of charities shall order a patient removed from the asylum to the county whence he came, the superintendent of the poor of such county shall audit and pay the actual and reasonable expense of such removal as part of the contingent expenses of the poor of such county. But if any town, city, or person be legally liable for the support of such patient, the amount of said expenses may be recovered by such superintendent, of the corporation or person so liable, for the use of such county. If such superintendent of the poor neglect or refuse to pay such expenses on demand, the treasurer of the asylum may pay the same and charge the amount thereof to such county, and the treasurer of said county is hereby authorized and required, on demand of the treasurer of said asylum, to pay the same with interest after thirty days; and the supervisors of such county shall levy and raise the amount thereof as other county charges are levied and collected. bid § 23. County treasurer to pay bills for main tenance, etc.; levy tax; burse. supervisors to towns to reim 140. The treasurer of every county having patients in said asylum is hereby authorized and directed to pay to the treasurer of the asylum all bills for the clothing and maintenance of such patients, as they shall become due and payable according to the by-laws of the asylum, upon the order of the steward; and the supervisors of said county shall annually levy and collect the amount of such bills as other bills and taxes are levied and collected by them, and also such further sums as will probably cover all similar bills for said county for one year in advance. Said county shall, however, have the right to require any individual, town, city or county that is legally liable for the support of such patient or patients, to reimburse it in the amount of said bills, with interest from the day of paying the same. 141. Every town, city or county, paying for the support of any inmate in said asylum shall have the right to bid § 24. require any other town, city or county that is legally liable for his support to refund to it the amount so legally liable paid, with interest thereon from the time of payment. Towns, etc., may require other towns, to refund. Ibid § 25. to attend to 142. All town and county officers sending a patient to the said asylum shall, before sending him, see that he is in a state of bodily cleanliness, and is comfortably clothed, and provided with a suitable change of raiment, as prescribed by the by-laws of the asylum. 143. The charges for maintaining a patient in said asylum, in addition to the charge for clothing, shall be annually fixed by the trustees, and shall not exceed the actual cost thereof, exclusive of officers' salaries and appropriations for repairs; nor shall it exceed the rate required at the Willard asylum. Ibid § 26. Charges for maintenance of patients. Ibid $ 27. 144. None of the provisions of this act shall restrain or abridge the power and authority of the supreme court of the state over the persons and alleged property of the insane. Power of supreme court not abridged. R. S., p. 1921, L. 1874, ch. 446, tit. 9, § 1. No private asylum to be established without license therefor; when PRIVATE ASYLUMS. 145. No person or association shall establish or keep an asylum, institution, house or retreat for the care, custody or treatment of the insane or persons of unsound mind, for compensation or hire, without first obtaining a license therefor from the state commissioner in lunacy; provided, that this section shall not apply to any state asylum or institution, or any asylum or institution established or conducted by any county; and provided, also, that it shall not apply to cases where an insane person or persons of unsound mind is detained and treated at his own house or that of some relative. not to apply. L. 1873, ch. 571, § 10. Applications for license. 146. Every application for such license shall be accompanied R. S., p. 1887, by a plan of the premises proposed to be occupied, to be drawn on a scale of not less than one-eighth of an inch to a foot, with a description of the situation thereof, and the length, breadth and heighth of, and a reference by figure or letter to every room and apartment therein, and a statement of the quantity of land not covered by any building annexed to such house and appropriated to the exclusive use, exercise and recreation of the patients proposed to be received therein, and also a statement of the number of patients proposed to be received into such house, and whether the license so applied for is for the reception of male or female patients, or for both, and if for the reception of both, of the number of each sex proposed to be received into such house, and for the means by which the one sex may be kept distinct and apart from the other. And it shall not be lawful for said. board to grant any such license without having first, either collectively or by a committee thereof, visited the premises proposed to be licensed, and being satisfied by such examination that they conform to the description of the application, and are otherwise fit and suitable for the purposes for which they are designed to be used. R. S., p. 1921, 446, tit. 9, § 2. for license; L. 1874, ch. Application commissioner to visit pregranting. mises before 147. Every application for such license shall be accompanied by a plan of the premises proposed to be occupied, describing the capacities of the buildings for the uses intended, the extent and location of grounds appurtenant thereto, and the number of patients of either sex proposed to be received therein; and it shall not be lawful for said commissioner to grant any such license without having first visited the premises proposed to be licensed, and being satisfied by such examination that they are as described, and are otherwise fit and suitable for the purposes for which they are designed to be used. 153, to grant ch. 571, § 11. When board 148. Whenever said state board of charities, upon the application of any person, association or corporation, R. S., p. 1887, made as provided by the preceding section of this act,* and examination of the building and means employed, or proposed to be employed, to take the license. care of insane persons, or persons of unsound mind, by such person, association or corporation, shall determine that the same are sufficient and proper for such purpose, the said board is hereby authorized and required to grant such license, and to make such conditions, terms and regulations, in regard thereto, as shall seem meet and proper for the care and protection, health and comfort, and for the inspection and examination of all insane persons, or persons of unsound mind, so lodged, boarded, kept or detained in such asylum or institution, and of all insane persons, or persons of unsound mind, in the charge or keeping of such person, association or corporation; which said license shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the * See pl. 146, supra. |