The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-12-27
CLERK WILL INVESTIGATE
NO ARRESTS AND NO COMMIT
MENTS TO JAIL.
iNEBRlATES MAY BE TAKEN AND TREATED
All the Institutions viii be Under the San e
Laws and Regulations and May Exchange
Patients A Separate Criminal
Insane SYST m,

insane >yStt m
Some important changes will be made
by the Legislature this winter in the
insanity laws of the State.
As has already been stated in these
columns the superintendent of the
employed Mr. JAS. II. Pou to draw for
them Il bill embracing all the laws in
the State touching the insane. and
making the laws relating to the three
asylums uniform.
The superintendent very properly
went further than this They authorized
Mr.. Pou, in preparing his bill, to incor-
porate in it certain changes and amend
ments tending to improve the methods
of treating the insane and make the in
situations for them more efficient.
First of these changes" said Mr..
Pou yesterday, Twill be to change the
name of all the institutions from
asylums to hospitals-State Hospital at
Raleigh, at Morganton and at Colds
boro.
Everything about the institution re-
sembling prison or partaking of a
criminal proceeding in the method of
committing a patient will be removed,
and patients will be treated as persons
in need of medical attention for mind
and body and in nowise as a criminal.
ITO this end the method of committing
a patient to the hospital Will be greatly
simplfied, and the preliminary commit
ment to jail, now so common, will be
obyiated. Many persons on the border
of insanity, that might soon be cured,
are rendered permanently insane by the
fright of an arrest, investigation and
Incarceration in prison to wait until
there is. Il vacancy for them i'll an
asylum. There is something in the very
word asylum that, by association, con-
yeys to the mind an idea of grated
windows and dark prison walls, hence
the substitution of the word hospital.
'.In order to do away with the present
method of procedure in sending a per-
son to the asylum, the power of commit
ment will be taken from the ma gistrates
and given to the clerk of court. He,
with the county physician and one other
reputable practitioner, whom the clerk
shall select, will go to the home of the
person declared insane and investigate
the case. This investigation need not
necessarily be held in the presence of
the person believed to be insane.
'.Then there will be no arrest or de-
tanning of the person until there is i
certainty of admission to the hospitals
This will forever do away with the
pitiable spectacle Of an insane person
being brought to an asylum and taken
back to lie in jail till room can be made
iii the asylum.
Another good feature of the new law
will be a section requiring tn county TO
see to it that the patients it sends to the
hospital are neat clean and provided
with proper clothing.
Each hospital will be allowed to taxi"
and treat for pay, limited number of
inebriates, and any county or town will
be permitted to pay the tuition for such
inebriates as it sees fit. This is now al
lowed at Morganton, but ar none Of the
other institutions in the State. The new
law will put them all on The same foot
ing.
ALSO it will give them all q uniform
system of government. Their grounds
will be policed by such of the employees
and attendants AIS the superintendent
may see fit to appoint, and these special
officers will have police powers UPON ali
the properly OF the Hospital.
Medical officers of these various insti-
tutions will be exempt from having to
attend courts as expert witnesses unless
the subpoena is approved by the nudge.
AS the law now stands any officer in
one of these hospitals may be required to
go to any county and give expert testi-
mony on hypothetical cases, when his
services are needed ut the institution
nd thf Inv thav will Ia tarnirad
to go only when their testimony is abso-
lutely necessary and that of other ply
sicians would not be sufficient
"A distinct system will be provided
for the government of the criminal in
sane. and conflicts of the penitentiary
and hospital authorities will be hereafter
avoided. This will be done by giving the
Board of Penitentiary Directors excln-
sive and entire control of the criminal
insane, with permission to call ON the
hospital physicians whenever necessary.
The bodily welfare of the criminal in
sane will, however. be attended to by
the regular penitentiary physician.
Should the number of criminal insane
become sufficient, say hundred. then
the penitentiary authorities would be
expected to employ an expert physician
to treat them for their mental troubles.
1T will be made a misdemeanor for
any one to give an insane person poison
or deadly weapon, as it is now a mis-
demeanor to give them liquor. Not long
ago a crazy man at Morganton killed
another, having been entrusted with a
deadly weapon by thoughtless outsider.
"tThese are among the most important
changes that will be made. But the en-
tire laws as to the insane in this State
will be embodied in one chapter whereas
they are now scattered through the
Code and the various acts of the Gen
eral Assembly for the last fifteen years.
1.-THE proposed law will be no more
expensive to the State than the old one.
1t simply changes the internal manage
ment of the hospitals for the insane,
makes the law uniform, allows such in
terchange of patients as may be deemed