NEW HAMPSHIRE. GOVERNMENT OF ASYLUM. 1. Location and title. 2. Government vested in board of trustees; appointment, vacancies. 3. Term of office. 4. Trustees, powers and duties. 8. Trustees may hold property in trust. 12. Report of officers to be distributed. 13. Exemption of officers from militia service. 14. Property of asylum exempt from taxation. ADMISSION AND DISCHARGE. 15. Dangerous insane, commitment by judge. 16. Indigent insane, commitment by overseers of poor, support. 17. Commitment by supreme court, on neglect of overseeers. 1. The asylum for the insane at Concord, is a corporation. under the name of the New Hampshire asylum for the insane. General Laws of 1878, ch. 10, § 1. Corporate name. Trustees ap 2. The government of the asylum is vested in twelve trustees, appointed and commissioned by the governor, with advice of the council; and all vacancies shall be filled in the same manner. Ibid § 2. pointment of. 3. The trustees are classified and commissioned in such manner that the offices of three trustees become va- Ibid § 3. cant annually. Tenure of office. and conIbid § 4. manage affairs Trustees to 4. The trustees shall take charge of the property cerns of the asylum; shall see that its affairs are conducted properly; may enter into and bind the asylum by such contracts relative to the support of patients and the affairs of the asylum as they may deem ad of asylum. vantageous; and may receive, appropriate, control, convey, or invest any property given to or owned by the asylum in such manner as they may think expedient. Ibid § 5. 5. The trustees shall appoint a secretary, who shall keep a full and fair record of their proceedings; a treasurer, who shall give bond for the faithful discharge of his duty; and such physicians, officers, and assistants, with such salaries and allowances, as may from time to time be found necessary. Ibid § 6. To receive no compen 6. No trustee shall receive any compensation for his services as trustee, but expenses necessarily insation but expenses. curred by him shall be paid by the asylum. 7. The trustees may make such regulations for their own government, for the management of the asylum and lations, etc. all persons connected therewith, and for the admission and care of patients, and the same from time to time alter, as convenience may require. Ibid § 7. Ibid § 8. property in trust. No 8. The trustees may take and hold in trust for the asylum any grant or devise of real estate, or any donation or bequest of personal property, and may apply the land taken for same, unless otherwise restricted, to lessen the expenses of the indigent insane. No land connected. with the asylum shall be taken for a highway or other public use, except by the express authority of the legislature, for that purpose first had and obtained. public use except by authority of the legislature. To make an 9. The trustees shall make to the governor and council, anIbid § 9. nually, a report, covering that of the superintendent nual reports. to them, of the receipts and expenditures of the asylum, the number of patients admitted and discharged during each year, and all other matters connected with the general interests of the asylum, which shall be furnished to the secretary of state on or before the twentieth day of April. 10. The governor and council, president of the senate, and speaker of the house shall constitute a board of visitors of the asylum; shall visit and inspect the same when necessary; examine into the condition of the patients, and the regulations and general management of the asylum; see that the design thereof is carried into full effect; and make to the legislature, biennially, a report, which shall be furnished to the secretary of state on or before the twentieth day of April next before the June session. Ibid § 10. visitors and Ibid hid § 11. Secretary to to be printed cause report and distributed. 11. The secretary shall cause fifteen hundred copies of the reports of the superintendent, trustees, and board of visitors of the asylum to be printed and distributed, one copy each, to the governor, members of the council, senate, and house, and their officers; one copy to the clerk of each town; and the remaining copies to be placed in the hands of the board of visitors, for distribution as they shall order and direct. Reports to be 12. * * * The report of the New Hampshire asylum for the insane * * * shall be furnished the state printer on Ch. 5. $6. or before the first day of May; *** All of the said furnished. reports shall be printed, and the said reports for that and the preceding year shall be laid before the legislature during the first week of the session. *** The secretary of state shall reserve five hundred copies of the several annual reports, and cause the same to be bound, and, as soon as may be after their publication, shall send one copy to the clerk of each town, for the use of said town, one copy to each society and library entitled to receive a copy of the laws and journals, and deposit the balance in the state library. 13. The following persons are also exempted from military duty and shall not be included in said enrollment: that is to say *** the attendants upon the insane, employed in the asylum for the insane. *** Ch. 95, § 4. Persons exempt from military duty. 14. The property of the asylum is exempted from tax ation. Ch. 10, § 26. bid § 12. gerous to be asylum. Persons dan committed to 15. If any insane person is in such condition as to render it dangerous that he should be at large, the judge of probate, upon petition by any person, and such notice to the selectmen of the town in which such insane person is or to the guardian or any other person, as he may order, which petition may be filed, notice issued, and a hearing had in vacation or otherwise,-may commit such insane person to the asylum. Insane paup mitted by 16. Any insane pauper supported by any town may be committed to the asylum by order of the overseers of Ibid § 14. the poor, and there supported at the expense of ers, how comsuch town; and such expense may be recovered by town. such town of the county, town, or person chargeable with the support of such pauper, in the same manner as if he had been supported in and by the town. 17. If the overseers neglect to make such order in relation. to any insane county pauper, the supreme court, or ers, how com- any two judges thereof in vacation, may order such pauper to be committed to the asylum, and there Ibid § 15. mitted. supported at the expense of the county. Ibid § 17. guardians, etc., may 18. The parent, guardian, or friends of any insane person may cause him to be committed to the asylum, with the consent of the trustees, and there supported on commit Con- such terms as they may agree; but the city of Concord shall not, in any case, be liable for the support or maintenance of any person committed to said asylum, except from said city. cord not to be liable. Ibid § 18. two physicians re quired to 19. No person shall be committed to the asylum for the insane, except by the order of the court or the judge Certificate of of probate, without the certificate of two reputable physicians that such person is insane, given after a commit. personal examination made within one week of the committal; and such certificate shall be accompanied by a certificate from a judge of the supreme court or court of probate, or mayor, or chairman of the selectmen, testifying to the genuineness of the signatures and the respectability of the signers. Ibid § 19. When county 20. Any insane person committed to the asylum by his parent, guardian, or friends, who has no means of shall support support and no relatives of sufficient ability chargeinsane person. able therewith, and no settlement in any town in this state, and who is in such condition that his discharge therefrom would be improper or unsafe, shall be supported by the county from which he was committed. 21. When the means of support of any inmate of the asylum shall fail or be withdrawn, the superintendent of Ibid § 20. When means counties to support. of support fail said asylum shall immediately cause notice in writing of that fact to be given to one of the county commissioners of the county from which such inmate was committed, and such county shall be liable and holden to pay to said asylum the expense of the support of such inmate from and after the service of such notice, and for ninety days. next prior thereto. 22. The county paying the expense of the support of any inmate shall be entitled to recover the amount so Ibid $21. paid of any town, county, or individual by law liable for the support of such inmate. recover ex penses paid. Discharge, 23. Any person committed to the asylum may be discharged by any three of the trustees or by any justice of the bid $ 22. supreme court, whenever the cause of commitment how effected. ceases or a further residence at the asylum is, in their opinion, not necessary; but any person so discharged who was under sentence of imprisonment at the time of his commitment, the period of which shall not have expired, shall be remanded to prison. Ibid § 23. visit asylum. and hear state tients. 24. Some one of the board of trustees of the asylum shall, without previous notice, visit that institution, at least twice every month, and give suitable opportunity to every patient therein who may desire it to make to him, in private, any statement such patient may wish to make; and, whenever in his opinion it may be deemed proper, he shall call to his aid two other members of said board, who shall, with him, make a further examination of such patient and of the statements by him made. If, in their view, the cause of commitment no longer exists or a further residence at the asylum is not necessary, it shall be their duty to discharge such patient. Should they deem the treatment of any patient injudicious, they shall order such an immediate change of the same as to them seems proper; and, in case of failure to secure it, they shall at once summon a meeting of the whole board, whose duty it shall be to take such measures as the exigency of the case demands. Ibid § 24. Superintend stationery to ents to furnish 25. It shall be the duty of the superintendent to furnish stationery to any patient who may desire it, and transmit any letter such patient may address to the board of trustees, to such member as said board shall have designated to receive such correspondence, and all such letters shall be promptly transmitted without inspection. patients, and transmit letters to trustees. it their 26. In the event of the sudden death of any patient in the asylum, a coroner's inquest shall be held, as Ibid § 25. provided for by law in other cases. Inquest on patients suddenly deceased. 27. The sum of six thousand dollars is annually appropriated for the maintenance of indigent insane persons belonging to this state at the asylum, for such and so Ibid $ 28. priation for in Annual appro |