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City Document.—No. 8.
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HOSPITAL FOR IDIOTS AND
            INSANE.
       In Common Council, February 21, 1839.
  The following Report and Order having been read,
and the Order passed to a second reading were, to-
gether with the accompanying draft of an Act, which
was also read, severally laid on the table and ordered
to be printed for the use of the Council.
  Attest,     Richard G. Wait, Clerk C. C.
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2        HOSPITAL FOR  IDIOTS, &c.     Feb.

             In City  Council, February 18,  1839.
The Committee of both Boards on the Jail, Houses
  of  Correction, Industry and  Reformation,  who
  were instructed to report " a system for the organ-
  ization and government of the Hospital for the In-
  sane and  Idiots, lately erected at South  Boston,
  also on applying to the Legislature for an alteration
  of the limits of the  House of Correction, so  as  to
  include said Hospital," have attended to that  duty
  and ask leave to

                 REPORT:
  That as the Hospital is an institution of a very dif-
ferent character from either of those now belonging to
the City at South Boston, the system under which it
may be managed may  be more simple.
  The physician, as in other  Hospitals of the  kind,
should  have both the responsibility and the power  in
all which relates to the medical treatment of the pa-
tients,  and should therefore have the appointment  of
all the  attendants which may  be necessary, in  order
that they may be under his control.  The expenses
of the house should be paid, and all  purchases  made
by a steward, who, like the physician, should be cho-
sen by  the City Council, and whose  accounts should
be examined quarterly,  or oftener,  if desired, by  a
Committee of  the Council.   The same  Committee
should  be required to visit the house, by at least one
of their members, once  in each week, and to report
directly to the Council whatever may appear to them
to need alteration.   They would be  the organ of the
City Council in carrying its  ordinances  into effect,
and would  supersede the necessity of establishing  a
MM 4   1*2 
1839.     CITY DOCUMENT.—No. 8.        3

separate Board of Directors.  They should be requir-
ed to report quarterly or oftener.
  The Committee report herewith a draft of an Act
empowering the courts who are now authorized  to
send lunatics to the  House  of  Correction, to place
them in this Hospital, this being thought, upon con-
sideration, to be a better mode of obtaining the object
than including the Hospital within the  precincts  of
the House of Correction.   They also avail themselves
of this opportunity to suggest to the Council the im-
portance of making early arrangements for the choice
of a physician, who might not only preside  over the
Hospital, but have charge  of the medical department
in all the other houses on the public lands, if such  an
arrangement  should be thought  advisable.   They re-
commend the adoption of the following order.
  For the Committee,
                         SAMUEL  A.  ELIOT.

  Ordered, That the Mayor be  instructed to apply to
the Legislature, in behalf of the City, for the passage
of an act, which shall authorize  the sending of luna-
tics and idiots to the  Hospital erected for them by the
City, instead of the House of Correction.

    In the Board of Aldermen, February 18, 1839.
Read and accepted.
Sent down for concurrence.
                 SAMUEL A. ELIOT, Mayor. 
4        HOSPITAL FOR IDIOTS, &c.     Feb.

          Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
In the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty nine.
  An Act to establish the Boston Lunatic Hospital.
   BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, in General Court assembled, and by the au-
thority of the same, as follows :
   Sect.  1.   The City Council of the City of Boston
are hereby authorized to erect and maintain a  Hos-
pital for the  reception of insane persons, not furiously
mad ; and such provision shall be  made for the  com-
fortable support of all persons confined  therein, and
they shall be governed or employed in such manner
as the  Mayor and  Aldermen of said  City may judge
best.
   Sect.  2.   The said City  Council  shall appoint a
Superintendent, who  shall be a Physician, and  con-
stantly reside at said Hospital, and a Steward, who
shall give bond for the faithful discharge of his  duty.
   Sect.  3.   The said Council shall  have power to
pass such ordinances as they may deem expedient for
conducting in a proper manner the  business of the
Institution and for appointing such  other officers as in
their opinion may be necessary.
   Sect.  4.   The inspectors  of prisons for the Coun-
ty of Suffolk, shall be inspectors of said Hospital, and
shall perform the like duties in  relation to it,  that
they are  now by law required to perform in relation
to the prisons in said County.
   Sect.  5.   Whenever it shall be made to appear on
application in writing to  the Justices of the Police
Court for the City of Boston, that any person  is in-
sane, not being  furiously mad, the  said  Justices are 
1839.     CITY  DOCUMENT.—No. 8.        5

hereby authorized to order the confinement of such
person in the said Hospital, and such sum  per  week
shall be allowed and paid for the  support of  every
such person, confined as aforesaid, as the  Mayor and
Aldermen of the City of Boston shall direct;  and if
in any case, there shall  be no  parent, kindred, master,
guardian,  Town or  City  obliged by law to maintain
the person so confined, the  sum allowed as aforesaid
shall be paid out  of the  Treasury  of the  Common-
wealth :  Provided,  that  in no case  shall  more than
two dollars  and fifty cents per  week ever be paid
from  said Treasury, and any person committed  as
aforesaid by said  Justices may at any time be dis-
charged, when in their  opinion such discharge would
be for the benefit of the person so confined, or when,
in their opinion, such person   would  be comfortably
supported by any parent, kindred, friend, master  or
guardian, or by any Town or City in which such
person may have a legal settlement, and the said Jus-
tices and other  officers  and  all witnesses shall receive
the same fees and compensation for services perform-
ed, and for attendance  and travel, as  are allowed  by
law, for like  services in criminal  proceedings, to  be
taxed, allowed and paid in the same manner.
   Sect. 6.  All insane persons who are now confin-
ed in the House of Correction or the House of Indus-
try in said City or may hereafter be  subject to con-
finement in either of said Houses, and all lunatics,
idiots and other patients who  shall be  removed  from
the State  Lunatic Hospital at Worcester to the  City
of Boston by the Trustees thereof, by virtue of the
fourteenth and  fifteenth sections of the forty eighth
chapter of the  Revised Statutes, shall hereafter  be
confined in the  said Boston Lunatic Hospital. 
6        HOSPITAL FOR IDIOTS, &c.    Feb.

  Sect. 7.  Any lunatic or insane persons who may
be confined  in said Hospital as before provided, by
authority of a certificate of the trustees of the State
Lunatic Hospital, according to the provisions of the
fifteenth  section of the  forty eighth chapter of the
Revised Statutes, may be discharged therefrom by the
Mayor and Aldermen of said City, whenever the cause
of confinement shall  have ceased to exist.   And said
Mayor and Aldermen, whenever in their opinion, such
lunatic or insane person  can, in  such manner be  more
comfortably  provided for, and the  safety of the public
will not be endangered thereby, may  provide  for his
custody and  support in other places than in  said Hos-
pital or may deliver  him to the custody and  care of
any  City or Town in which he  may have  a  legal
settlement,  the  said  lunatic or insane person, still
continuing subject  to the order and direction  of said
Mayor and Aldermen.   The expense of so  providing
for such lunatic or  insane person shall be  reimbursed
in the same  manner, and recovered by the same rem-
edies  as  are provided in the sixteenth  section of the
forty eighth  chapter of the Revised  Statutes :  Pro-
vided, that in no case shall  the sum charged for  such
provision exceed two dollars and fifty cents per week.
  Sect. 8.  All laws inconsistent with this  act are
hereby repealed.
  Sect. 9.  This  act shall take effect from and after
its passage. 
 
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