Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

PART SECOND.

THE LUNACY LAWS.

[Public Statutes, Chap. 87.]

OF LUNACY AND INSTITUTIONS FOR LUNATICS.

GENERAL DUTIES OF STATE BOARD.

[blocks in formation]

SECTION

21. Fees of officers, jurors, and witnesses. 22. Judge to keep docket, original application, etc.

23. Fees of judges, physicians, and officers. 24. Expenses, how paid.

25. State board to apply for commitment to hospital, when.

26. Persons violently insane may be received at hospitals without warrant of commitment, when.

27. Bond in such cases.

28. Persons making voluntary application may be received.

29. Notice to be given to board of health, lunacy, and charity.

30. Penalty upon physician for conspiring to commit sane person.

EXPENSES.

31. Price of board for lunatic paupers in state hospitals.

32. Charges for state paupers, to be paid quarterly; and may afterwards be recov ered by the state.

33. For town and city paupers, to be paid quarterly; if not, may be recovered, etc. 34. Remedy of towns paying for support,

etc.

13. Certificate of two physicians. 14. On application for commitment to state hospital, notice to be given to selectmen, CERTAIN PRIVILEGES OF PATIENTS IN HOS

etc.

15. In all cases, statement to be filed with judge, etc.

16. Judge may cause alleged lunatic to be brought before him.

17. Jury may be summoned.

18. How jury to be selected and impanelled. 19. Judge to preside; verdict.

20. How deficiency in jury may be suppl

PITALS.

35. Attorney may visit patients, when. 36. Patients shall be allowed to write letters to certain persons; shall be furnished with materials for correspondence; boxes for letters, etc.

ASYLUM FOR CHRONIC INSANE.

37. Asylum for chronic insane at Worcester. 51

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

State board to be commissioners of lunacy,

etc.

1879, 291, § 5.

GENERAL DUTIES OF STATE BOARD.

SECTION 1. The state board of health, lunacy, and charity shall act as commissioners of lunacy, with power to investigate the question of the insanity and condition of any person committed to any lunatic hospital or asylum, public or private, or restrained of his liberty by reason of alleged insanity, at any place within this commonwealth; and shall discharge any person so committed or restrained, if in its opinion such person is not insane, or can be cared for after such discharge without danger to others, and with benefit to himself.

[For other powers of the State Board, see chap. 79, Public Statutes.]

Titles of hospitals.

1862, 223, § 1. 1877, 252, § 1.

Lands of hospitals not to be

etc., unless, etc. 1862, 223, § 2.

STATE LUNATIC HOSPITALS.

SECT. 2. The titles of the state lunatic hospitals shall be severally, the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, the Taunton Lunatic Hospital, the Northampton Lunatic Hospital, and the Danvers Lunatic Hospital.

SECT. 3. The lands now holden and which may hereafter be taken for streets, holden by the trustees of any state lunatic hospital in trust for the commonwealth, for the use of the institution of which they are trustees, shall not be taken for a street, highway, or railroad, without leave of the legislature specially obtained.

Government of each hospital vested in five trustees. Appointment

SECT. 4. The government of each of the state lunatic hospitals at Worcester, Taunton, Northampton, and Danvers, shall be vested in a board of five trustees, appointed and commissioned by the

governor with the advice and consent of the council, subject to removal only for sufficient cause. The trustees now in office shall continue to hold their offices until the terms thereof expire according to the provisions of this section. On the first Wednesday of February in each year the term of office of the senior member in each board, as they stand arranged on the list of their appointments, shall terminate, and the name of the person appointed to fill the vacancy shall be placed at the bottom of the list, and other vacancies may at any time be filled, and the names of the persons appointed substituted in the list for the remainder of the vacant terms.

SECT. 5. The trustees of each hospital shall be a corporation for the purpose of taking and holding, to them and their successors, in trust for the commonwealth, any grant or devise of lands, and any donation or bequest of money or other personal property, made for the use of the institution of which they are trustees, and for the purpose of preserving and investing the proceeds thereof in notes or bonds secured by good and sufficient mortgages or other securities, with all the powers necessary to carry said purposes into effect. SECT. 6. They shall take charge of the general interests of the institution and see that its affairs are conducted according to the requirements of the legislature and the by-laws and regulations which the board shall establish for the internal government and economy thereof; and they shall be reimbursed all expenses incurred in the discharge of their official duties.

SECT. 7. They shall establish by-laws and regulations, with suitable penalties, for the internal government and economy of the institution; shall appoint a superintendent who shall be a physician and constantly reside at the hospital; and a treasurer who shall give bond for the faithful discharge of his duties; shall appoint, or make provision in the by-laws for appointing, such officers as in their opinion may be necessary for conducting efficiently and economically the business of the institution; and shall determine, subject to the approval of the governor and council, the salaries of all the officers. All their appointments shall be made in such manner, with such restrictions, and for such terms of time, as the by-laws may prescribe.

[blocks in formation]

Salaries of paid.

officers,

how

G. S. 73, § 5.

SECT. 8. The salaries of the superintendents, assistant physicians, stewards, and matrons of the state lunatic hospitals, shall be paid quarterly from the current receipts of the several hospitals. SECT. 9. There shall be thorough visitations of each hospital Visitation of by two of the trustees thereof monthly, and by a majority of them quarterly, and by the whole board semi-annually, at each

hospitals, annual meeting,

of G.9.73, § 6.

S.

Treasurer's books.

G. S. 73, § 7.

which a written account of the state of the institution shall be
drawn up, which shall be presented at the annual meeting to be
held between the first and fifteenth days of October.
At the an-
nual meeting a full and detailed report shall be made, exhibiting a
particular statement of the condition of the hospital and all its
concerns, with a list of the salaried officers and their salaries, and
in a tabular form, under the heads specified in section seven of
chapter seventy-nine, the value of the stock and supplies, to be
laid before the governor and council on or before the fifteenth day
of October, for the use of the government; and at the same meet-
ing the treasurer shall present to the trustees his annual report on
the finances of the institution; both of which reports shall be
made up to the thirtieth day of September inclusive. The trustees
shall audit the report of the treasurer, and transmit it with their
annual report to the governor and council.

SECT. 10. The accounts and books of the treasurer shall at all times be open to the inspection of the trustees.

Judges may
commit insane

persons to state
hospitals.
1862, 223, § 3.
1879, 195, § 1.

No person to be
committed to
any hospital
without order
of judge, ex-
cept, etc. What
the order shall
state.

1862, 223, § 3.
1879, 195, § 2.
1880, 250, § 6.
11 Gray, 107.

111 Mass. 308.

COMMITMENTS TO HOSPITALS.

SECT. 11. A judge of the supreme judicial court or superior court, in any county where he may be, and a judge of the probate court, or of a police, district, or municipal court, within his county, may commit to either of the state lunatic hospitals any insane person, then residing or being in said county, who in his opinion is a proper subject for its treatment or custody.

SECT. 12. Except when otherwise specially provided, no person shall be committed to a lunatic hospital, asylum, or other receptacle for the insane, public or private, without an order or certificate therefor, signed by one of the judges named in the preceding section, said person residing or being within the county as therein provided. Such order or certificate shall state that the judge finds that the person committed is insane, and is a fit person for treatment in an insane asylum. And said judge shall see and examine the person alleged to be insane, or state in his final order the reason why it was not deemed necessary or advisable to do so. The hearing, except when a jury is summoned, shall be at such place as the judge shall appoint. In all cases the judge shall certify in what place the lunatic resided at the time of his commitment; or if the confinement is ordered by a court, the judge shall certify in what place the lunatic resided at the time of the arrest in pursuance of which he was held to answer before such court; and such certificate shall, for the purposes of the preceding section, be conclusive evidence of his residence.

two physicians.

SECT. 13. No person shall be so committed, unless in addition Certificate of to the oral testimony there has been filed with the judge a certifi- 1879, 195, § 3. cate signed by two physicians, each of whom is a graduate of some legally organized medical college, and has practised three years in the state, and neither of whom is connected with any hospital or other establishment for treatment of the insane. Each must have personally examined the person alleged to be insane within five days of signing the certificate; and each shall certify that in his opinion said person is insane and a proper subject for treatment in an insane hospital; and shall specify the facts on which his opinion is founded. A copy of the certificate, attested by the judge, shall be delivered by the officer or other person making the commitment, to the superintendent of the hospital or other place of commitment, and shall be filed and kept with the order.

SECT. 14. A person applying for the commitment or for the admission of a lunatic to a state lunatic hospital, under the provisions of this chapter, shall first give notice in writing to the mayor, or one or more of the selectmen, of the place where the lunatic resides, of his intention to make such application; and satisfactory evidence that such notice has been given shall be produced to the judge in cases of commitment.

SECT. 15. Upon every application for the commitment or admission of an insane person to a hospital or asylum for the insane, there shall be filed with the application, or within ten days after the commitment or admission, a statement in respect to such person, showing as nearly as can be ascertained his age, birthplace, civil condition, and occupation; the supposed cause and the duration and character of his disease, whether mild, violent, dangerous, homicidal, suicidal, paralytic, or epiletic; the previous or present existence of insanity in the person or his family; his habits in regard to temperance; whether he has been in any lunatic hospital, and if so what one, when, and how long; and, if the patient is a woman, whether she has borne children, and, if so, what time has elapsed since the birth of the youngest; the names and address of his father, mother, children, brothers, sisters, or other next of kin, not exceeding ten in number, and over eighteen years of age, when the names and address of such relatives are known by the person or persons making such application, together with any facts showing whether he has or has not a settlement, and if he has a settlement, in what place; and if the applicant is unable to state any of the above particulars, he shall state his inability to do so. The statement, or a copy thereof, shall be transmitted to the superintendent of the hospital or asylum, to be filed with the order of commitment,

On application to state hospital

for commitment

given to select

notice to be

men, etc.
1862, 223, § 4.

In all cases,

statement to be

filed with judge,

etc.

1862, 223, § 5. 1865, 268, § 2.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »