A System of legal medicine v. 2

AMENDED CODE OF WEST VIRGINIA, 1884.

CHAPTER 58, SECTION 7.—West Virginia Hospital for the Insane.

A superintendent and as many assistants as may be necessary, who shall be physicians, and other officers, shall be appointed by the board, and shall receive such compensation as the board may prescribe. The board may also appoint an executive committee, and may authorize the superintendent to employ as many nurses and attendants as may be necessary, and also discharge them, or any of them, and employ others, but the board shall fix their compensation. Any one or more of the directors, together with the superintendent, shall constitute an Examining Board, and may examine persons brought to the asylum as lunatics, and order those found to be such to be received.

SEC. 11 (ACTS of 1882, p. 133).-Any justice who shall suspect any person in his county to be a lunatic shall issue his warrant, ordering such person to be brought before him. He shall inquire whether such person be a lunatic, and for that purpose summon a physician and other witnesses. In addition to any other questions he may propound as many of the following as may be applicable to the case: 1. What is the patient's age, and where born? 2. Is he married; if so, how many children has he? 3. What are his habits and occupation? 4. How long since indications of insanity appeared? 5. What were they? 6. Does the disease appear to increase? 7. Are there periodical exacerbations; any lucid intervals, and of what duration? 8. Is his derangement evinced on one or on several subjects; what are they? 9. What is the supposed cause of his disease? 10. What change is there in his bodily condition since the attack? 11. Has there been a former attack; when, and of what duration? 12. Has he shown any disposition to commit violence to himself or others? 13. Whether any, and what restraint has been imposed on him? 14. If any, what connections of his have been insane. Were his parents or grandparents blood relations; if so, in what degree? 15. Has he any bodily disease from suppression of evacuations, eruptions, sores, injuries, or the like, and what is its history? What curative means have been pursued and their effect, and especially if depleting remedies, and to what extent, have been used?

SEC. 12.-If the said justice decide that the person is a lunatic and ought to be confined in the hospital, and ascertain that he is a citizen of this State, then-unless some person to whom the justice, in his discretion, may deliver such lunatic, will give bond, with sufficient security, to be approved by said justice, payable to the State, with condition to restrain and take proper care of such lunatic until the cause of confinement shall cease, or the lunatic is delivered to the Sheriff of the county, to be proceeded with according to law-the said justice shall order him to be removed to the hospital and received, if there be room therein.

SEC. 23. When Persons may be Discharged from Hospital.

Except in the case of a person charged with crime and subject to be tried therefor, or convicted of crime and subject to be punished therefor, when in a condition to be so tried or punished, the board of the hospital, or the circuit court of any county, may deliver any lunatic confined in the hospital or in the jail of such county to any friend who will give bond with security, with the condition mentioned in the twelfth section of this chapter; and where a lunatic, except as aforesaid, is deemed by the superintendent of the hospital both harmless and incurable, the board may deliver him without such bond to any friend who is willing and, in the opinion of the board, able to take care of him.

SEC. 50.-General Provisions.

If any director of the hospital, justice, clerk of a court, or other officers shall fail to perform any duty required of him in the chapter, or shall offend against any prohibition contained herein, he shall forfeit not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars.

SEC. 51.

The word "lunatic," whenever it occurs in this chapter, shall be construed to include every insane person who is not an idiot.

REVISED STATUTES OF WISCONSIN, 1879-1883.

CHAPTER 32, SECTION 588.-Duties of the Superintendent.

The superintendent of each hospital shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, take and subscribe an oath faithfully and diligently to discharge the duties required of him by law and the by-laws of the Board of Trustees. He shall be chief executive officer of the hospital, and shall devote all his time and attention to his duties; he shall exercise entire control over all the subordinate officers; he shall employ all employees and assistants necessarily connected with the institution below the grade designated in the by-laws as officers, and may discharge any officer, assistant, or employee at will, being responsible to the Board of Trustees for the proper exercise of that duty in regard to officers. The superintendent shall not be compelled to obey the subpoena of any court in any case, civil or criminal, if he shall file with the magistrate or clerk his affidavit that to obey the same would be seriously detrimental and hazardous to the welfare of the hospital under his charge, except when an accusation of murder is to be tried; nor in such case, unless the judge shall make a special order therefor, and the subpoena, with a memorandum thereof indorsed thereon, be served one week before the time when he shall be required to appear; provided, however, that no person shall be entitled, in any case, to make and file such affidavit, exempting him from subpoenas as aforesaid, who shall upon tender of the usual fees of witnesses, in courts of record, refuse to be present and to give his deposition at his office or usual place of business, or, instead thereof, at his house or usual place of abode; provided further, that any person so present and giving his deposition at his office or usual place of business, or, instead thereof, at his house or usual place of abode, who shall be detained four hours from the time fixed for the taking of such deposition, or from the time to which the taking of the same may have been adjourned, may make affidavit that further detention would be seriously detrimental or hazardous to the welfare of the person or business in or under his charge; and such affidavit having been made, a justice of the peace, court commissaries, notary public, or other authorized officer before whom such deposition is given, shall thereupon adjourn further proceedings thereon to a future day.

SEC. 593.-Proceedings to Determine Insanity—Examination by Physicians. Whenever any resident of this State, or any person from therein whose residence cannot be ascertained, shall be or be supposed to be insane, application may be made in his behalf by any respectable citizen to the judge of the County Court, judge of the Circuit Court, or any judge of a court of record in and for the county in which he resides, or, in case his residence is unknown, the county in which he is found, for a judicial inquiry as to his mental condition, and for an order of commitment to some hospital or asylum for insane. The application shall be in writing and shall specify whether or not a trial by jury is desired by applicant. On receipt of said petition the judge to whom it is addressed shall appoint two disinterested physicians, of good repute for medical skill and moral integrity, to visit and examine the person alleged to be insane; and such physicians shall proceed without unnecessary delay to the residence of the person supposed to be insane, and shall by personal examination and inquiries satisfy themselves fully as to his condition and report the result of their examination to the judge.

Upon the receipt of the report of the examining physicians the judge may, if no demand has been made for a jury, make and enter his order of commitment to the hospital or asylum of the district to which the county belongs, or, if not fully satisfied, he may make such additional investigation of the case as may seem to him to be necessary and proper; and at any stage of the proceedings, and before the actual confinement of the person alleged to be insane, he, or any relative or friend acting in his behalf, shall have the right to demand that the question of sanity be tried by a jury, and when such demand is made the judge shall forthwith enter an order for a jury trial.

In case a trial by jury is demanded, the forms of procedure shall be the same as in trials by jury in justices' courts, and the trial shall be in the presence of the person supposed to be insane, and his counsel and immediate friends and the medical wit

nesses. ...

County Judge may Order Insane Persons Confined.

On receipt by the county judge of the petition provided for by section 1 of chapter 266 of the General Laws of 1880, such judge may, if in his opinion the public safety

requires it, deliver to the sheriff of his county an order in writing requiring him forthwith to take and confine such insane or supposed insane person in some place to be specified, until further order of the judge; and after the receipt by such judge of the report of the examining physicians provided for in said chapter, such judge may, in his discretion, deliver to such officer such order in writing requiring him forthwith to take such person into custody and keep him in some place to be specified, until the further order of such judge. The examining physicians provided for by said section 1 of said chapter 266, in addition to the report required to be made by them by said section, shall state as follows: Has the patient any infectious disease? In your opinion

is he insane?

If any relative or friend-being of a legal age and competent to perform the duties of any person committed to any hospital for the insane shall request the warrant for such commitment may be delivered to and executed by him, he shall be paid his necessary expenses, not exceeding the fees and expenses now allowed to sheriffs according to law; otherwise it shall be delivered to the sheriff, who, taking such assistants as the courts issuing such warrants may deem necessary, shall receive such insane person and convey him to the hospital.

REVISED STATUTES OF WYOMING, 1887.

SEC. 2287.-Application for Inquisition.

If information in writing be given to the probate judge that any person in the county is an idiot, lunatic, or person of unsound mind, or an habitual drunkard, or incapable of managing, and praying that an inquiry therein to be had, the court, if satisfied that there be good cause for the exercise of its jurisdiction, shall cause the facts to be inquired into by a jury.

SEC. 2288.-Court may Act in Vacation.

Such information may also be given in the vacation of said court, to the judge therefor, in which event he shall call a special term of the court for the purpose of holding an inquiry whether the person mentioned in such information be of unsound mind or an habitual drunkard, or not.

SEC. 2289.-Person may be Brought into Court.

In proceeding under this chapter the Probate Court may, in its discretion, cause the person alleged to be of unsound mind or habitual drunkard to be brought before the court.

SEC. 2290.-Whenever any judge of the Probate Court, justice of the peace, sheriff, coroner, or constable, shall discover any person resident of his county to be of unsound mind or an habitual drunkard, as in the first section of this chapter mentioned, it shall be his duty to make application to the Probate Court for the exercise of its jurisdiction, and thereupon the like proceedings shall be had as in the case of information by unofficial persons.

1888.

CHAPTER 85, SECTION 1.-That section No. 3765 of the Revised Statutes of Wyoming be amended and revised so as to read as follows: Section 3765.-After the building herein provided for shall have been completed and accepted by the Board of Commissioners the board shall serve notice in writing upon the Boards of County Commissioners of all the different counties in this Territory, which notice shall state that the asylum for insane at Evanston is now completed and ready for the reception and care of insane persons. Each Board of County Commissioners shall, after the receipt of such notice, cause all persons adjudged to be insane, and whose care shall have been thrown upon the county, to be sent as patients to the Insane Asylum at Evanston, there to be kept and cared for at the expense of said county. And all insane persons having been sent to asylums outside of this Territory shall, upon the completion of said asylum at Evanston, and notice to the Board of County Commissioners as hereinbefore provided, be returned as soon as practicable, under an order of the respective Boards of County Commissioners, to this county, to be kept and cared for at the insane asylum at Evanston.

SEC. 3764 (1887).—Superintendent of Asylums—Qualifications and Duties.

The Board of Commissioners shall elect one resident physician, who shall be the general superintendent of the insane asylum herein provided for, subject at all times to the order and duties of said board, which shall have power at any time, whenever in their judgment it shall be deemed proper and for the best interests of the Territory, to discharge and remove such superintendent. The superintendent so elected shall reside at the asylum, be a graduate in medicine, and receive a salary of eighteen hundred dollars per year, payable in advance in equal installments. He shall cause to be kept a fair and full account of all his doings and the actual business and operations of the institution, and submit a monthly report to the Board of Commissioners. The superintendent shall employ all necessary help needed at the asylum, subject to the approval of the Board of Commissioners.

SEC. 3766.-Paying patients, whose friends offer and will pay, or who have property to pay their expenses, shall be admitted to the insane asylum, according to the terms directed by the Board of Commissioners thereof; but the insane poor shall in all respects receive the same medical care and treatment, and be given as wholesome food, as is given to paying patients.

INDEX.

PAGE

..II. 112

ABERRATION, mental, influence of, upon capacity of individual.......
ABORTION, clinical evidences of: changes in maternal organism during preg-

nancy, condition of utero-vaginal tract, genital discharges..
stains upon bedding or clothing..

criminally induced....

(a) medicinal measures: ergot, tansy, cotton-root, savin, rue, yew, saf-
fron, pennyroyal, cathartics, apiol, chloride of iron.....

direct interference to produce: detachment of ovum, perforation of fetus,

(b) mechanical measures: blows, jolts, douches, tents, etc..

defined ....