salaried places with systematic work, and a regular holiday. The worst of it is that such persons often tend to do exactly the reverse of all this. Some especially neurotic children need very special modes of education. I have seen cases who could not safely be sent to school. Through precocious stealing, lying, and vice, they were constantly getting into trouble. They were without much moral sense or self-control, and had erratic, motiveless ways. I have seen good results with such children sometimes by placing them in a quiet family, under motherly care, in the country, under special rules and guidance, and away from much temptation. Such children are the stock out of which the insane, the masturbators, the dipsomaniacs, and the motiveless criminals arise, with a poet or a genius to redeem the class once in a century, and to vindicate nature's law of compensation in the world.

ABSTRACT

OF THE

STATUTES OF THE UNITED STATES, AND OF THE SEVERAL
STATES AND TERRITORIES, RELATING TO
THE CUSTODY OF THE INSANE.

BY

CHARLES F. FOLSOM, M. D.,

FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES; ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF MENTAL DISEASES, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL; PHYSICIAN TO OUT-PATIENTS WITH

DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, BOSTON CITY HOSPITAL.

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF

MR. HOLLIS R. BAILEY,

ATTORNEY AND COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

THE insane asylums in the several States are, as a rule, under the direction of a board called trustees, directors, commissioners, visitors, managers, regents or administrators. These boards are in some cases elected by the legislature, more commonly appointed by the governor of the State, with or without the advice or consent of the council, or senate, or legislature. The boards are required to visit the hospitals at stated intervals, and to make annual or biennial reports to the governor or to the legislature. For the most part they appoint the medical officers of the asylums, generally with the approval of the governor. In some States the governor appoints such officers. In Maine one member of the board must be a woman, and in Iowa two may be women.

In West Virginia the board is appointed by the board of public works. In Florida, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, the board of commissioners of charitable and correctional institutions is the board of trustees. In the District of Columbia the visitors are appointed by the President. In North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, there are separate asylums for negroes. County asylums, where they exist, are not much better than almshouses or houses of correction for the most part: and the laws requiring them, in the few States where there are such, are often disregarded. In Massachusetts there were never more than three, and there is now only one.

The various asylums have different by-laws regarding payment of dues for patients, etc. Women are employed as physicians in some, and in one State, Nebraska, there must be one female physician.

In those States where the laws do not specify regulations for the commitment, or admission, of private patients, the trustees are allowed to include that matter under their by-laws; and they generally prescribe a medical certificate from one physician, or two, which in some States must be signed under oath.

The civil laws of all the States provide the right of habeas corpus, according to law, and the possibility of a jury trial to a person demanding his discharge from an insane asylum; they deal in various ways with the disqualifications of the insane as to holding office, voting, serving as jurors or witnesses, managing property, marrying, and guardianship. In a few States incurable insanity is ground for divorce.