aforesaid, by subpena or subpena duces tecum, signed by himself. A willful refusal or neglect to obey such subpena shall subject the person so refusing, or neglecting, to a penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars, to be sued for and recovered by said commissioner. And upon proof by affidavit, before any judge of a court of record, of the service of any such subpena, and the neglect or refusal of any person to obey the same, said judge shall issue an order, signed by himself, to the sheriff of any county in which such person shall reside or be found, commanding said sheriff to bring said person before said commissioner, at a place to be named, to testify as aforesaid, and said sheriff shall obey said order and produce said person, and for a refusal to testify when so produced, upon satisfactory proof of such refusal, said judge shall have as full power to punish the person so refusing to testify, for contempt, as any such judge or the Supreme Court now have, or shall have, to punish for contempt in any case or matter whatsoever. Said commissioner shall pay out of the moneys appropriated to the expenses of his office, to any sheriff or other person serving subpenas, or other papers or process, or executing any orders of a court or judge, the fees thereon authorized by law for similar services in courts of record; and he may in his discretion pay to any witness so subpenaed the fees and mileage now allowed by law to witnesses in such courts.

§ 4. Within two days from the time of the reception of any patient into any asylum or institution, within this State, public or private, for the reception, care, custody or treatment of insane persons or persons of unsound mind, it shall be the duty of the superintendent or other chief officer or manager thereof, or person conducting or having the charge and management thereof for the time being, to transmit by mail to the said commissioner at his said office, copies of the order, medical certificates and commitment hereinafter mentioned and copies of all other papers upon which said person was received, together with the full name, age and residence of such person so received, and the date of his or her reception. And within seven days from the date of such reception, it shall be the duty of the chief medical officer of said asylum or institution, or the medical officer in charge thereof for the time being, to transmit to said commissioner, at his said office, his own account of the case as derived from personal observation and examination, stating the nature and symptoms of the insanity or unsoundness of mind, and such other facts as the said commissioner may by regulation require.

5. No person, whether being represented to be an insane person, or a person of unsound mind, or only a boarder or lodger, shall be received into or detained as a patient or for medical treatment, in any asylum or institution for the care, custody or treatment of insane persons or persons of unsound mind, whether public or private, without an order under the hand of some person according to the form and stating the particulars required in Schedule A, annexed to this act, and without a commitment signed by a judge of a court of record or a justice of the peace, which commitment shall state that said judge or justice of the peace has personally examined the two

physicians who signed the certificates hereinafter mentioned, and that he is satisfied from such examinations the person committed is an insane person or person of unsound mind, and a proper person to be confined, and without, in addition to said order and said commitment, the medical certificates according to the form and stating the particulars required in Schedule B, annexed to this act, of two physicians who have been duly authorized to practice by some medical college or institution, who shall not be partners with each other or in any way connected with or interested in said asylum or institution, each of whom shall, separately from the other, have personally examined the person to whom it relates, not more than seven days previously to the reception of such person into such asylum or institution, and shall have signed and dated said certificate on the day on which such person shall have been examined. Said order and commitment and medical certificates shall be delivered to the superintendent, manager or other person in charge of said asylum or institution at the time of the reception of said patient, and shall be kept on file therein, and any person who shall receive or detain any such person as aforesaid without said order, commitment and medical certificates as aforesaid; and any physician who shall, knowingly, sign any such medical certificate which shall untruly state any of the particulars therein required to be stated; and any person who shall, knowingly, sign any such order (Schedule A), which untruly states any of the particulars required therein to be stated, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, provided that this section shall not apply to any person who may be committed as an insane convict, or an insane pauper or indigent person under the laws of this State, but such persons may be committed and received as provided by law, anything in this section to the contrary notwithstanding.

§ 6. Any person who shall hereafter be received as a patient into any asylum or institution, public or private, for the care and safekeeping of lunatics, or persons of unsound mind, whether represented to be an insane person or a person of unsound mind, or only a boarder or lodger, may, after the expiration of seven days from such reception, transmit to the said commissioner in lunacy one communication in writing, and it shall be the duty of the officers of said asylum or institution, or the person in charge thereof, forthwith to transmit said communication, unopened, to said commissioner by mail. And upon the reception of any such person as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the officer or person in charge so receiving him or her, to deliver to said person so received a card, whereon shall be printed in large letters the following words: "At the expiration of seven days from the date of reception, every patient shall have the "absolute right to transmit an unopened communication to the com"missioner in lunacy at Albany, New York, for which purpose "writing materials will be furnished on application." And at the same time distinctly to state to said patient the contents of said card; which delivery and statement shall be in the presence of a competent witness, and of which delivery and statement a memorandum shall be forthwith entered upon a book to be kept at said

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asylum or institution for that purpose, which memorandum shall be at the time attested by the person making said delivery and statement and by said witness. And it shall be the duty of the chief officer, or other person in charge of such asylum or institution, to furnish to such patient at the expiration of said seven days, or as soon thereafter as said patient shall request, writing materials and postage stamps for the purpose of enabling said communication to be written and transmitted. For a willful refusal or neglect to comply with the duties imposed by this section, the person so refusing or neglecting shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall furthermore be subject to a penalty of five hundred dollars for each such refusal or neglect, to be sued for and recovered by said commissioner, or by any informer; which penalty shall be paid into the treasury of the State, and shall be applied toward the expenses of executing this act. And for a willful failure or refusal to comply with the provisions of this section, the said commissioner in lunacy may in his discretion revoke the license of any licensed asylum or institution whose officers or managers may so offend.

$7. It shall be the duty of said commissioner in lunacy, immediately after his appointment, to visit and inspect every asylum or institution in this State, both public and private, wherein lunatics or persons of unsound mind are received and detained, and to personally examine every patient therein, and to investigate all complaints of said patients as to the injustice of their detention, or their treatment by attendants and others, and to make all the examinations which said commissioner is required or authorized by law to make, and thereafter to make such examinations and investigations from time to time, as often as practicable; and, upon the receipt of the communication mentioned in the sixth section of this act, it shall be the duty of the said commissioner to so answer the same as the circumstances may require; and if such communication shall cause said commissioner to believe that the writer thereof is unjustly detained, it shall be his duty to visit such patient and investigate his or her case. If, upon an investigation into the condition of any patient, either by reason of such communication or otherwise, the said commissioner shall be of opinion that he or she is improperly detained, and the chief medical officer of said asylum or institution, or person in charge thereof shall, upon a consideration of the case, in conjunction with said commissioner, coincide with him in that opinion, then, in that case, said patient shall be discharged. In case said commissioner and said chief medical officer shall differ in regard to the sanity of said patient, or the propriety of his or her detention, it shall be the duty of said commissioner to enter the facts and his opinion thereon in a book, to be kept for that purpose at said asylum or institution, and forthwith to report the case, with his opinion thereon, to the justice of the Supreme Court residing nearest to said asylum or institution, except that when said asylum or institution is situated in the counties of New York and Kings said report may be made to any justice of the Supreme Court residing in the county in which said asylum or institution is situated, and it shall be the duty of

said justice to issue a writ of habeas corpus to bring before him the body of such patient, and he shall proceed to investigate the propriety of said detention, and shall remand or discharge the patient according to the justice of the case. And the said justice may, in his discretion, submit the question of the sanity of such patient to a jury, which jury shall be nominated, drawn, summoned and sworn, and shall proceed as provided in sections three, four and five of act chapter 225 of the Laws of 1840. Should said jury fail to agree as to the sanity or insanity of said patient, said justice may cause a second or third jury to be drawn and summoned for the consideration of the case, or he may himself determine it, in his discretion. The minutes of the proceedings had upon such trial, including the testimony taken, shall be certified by said justice to be correct, and shall be forthwith filed in the office of the clerk of the county in which such hearing shall take place; and said clerk shall, upon the payment of his legal fees, furnish to said commissioner a certified copy thereof, which shall be filed by said commissioner in his office. Nothing in this act contained shall impair the jurisdiction of any court or officer to inquire by habeas corpus into the detention of any person, provided that all writs of habeas corpus to inquire into the detention of any person confined in any asylum or institution, public or private, for the custody and care of insane persons, or persons of unsound mind, shall be issued by and made returnable before a court held, or officer who resides, in the county in which such asylum or institution is located, or in an adjoining county.

§ 8. Ne person, association or corporation shall establish or keep an asylum, institution, house or retreat for the care, custody or treatment of the insane or persons of unsound mind, without first obtaining a license therefor from said commissioner, provided that all persons, associations or corporations who, at the time of the passage of this act, are engaged in keeping such asylums, institutions, houses or retreats, or in receiving or keeping insane persons or persons of unsound mind for compensation or hire, shall obtain such license within three months after the appointment of such commissioner; and provided, further, that this section shall not apply to any State asylum or institution, or to any asylum or institution established or conducted by any county or by any city or municipal corporation.

§ 9. Every application for such license shall be accompanied by a plan of the premises proposed to be occupied, to be drawn on a scale of not less than one-eighth of an inch to a foot, with a description of the situation thereof, and the length, breadth and height of, and a reference by a figure or letter to every room and apartment therein, and a statement of the quantity of land not covered by any building annexed to such house and appropriated to the exclusive use, exercise and recreation of the patients proposed to be received therein, and also a statement of the number of patients proposed to be received into such house, and whether the license so applied for is for the reception of male or female patients, or for both, and if for the reception of both, of the number of each sex proposed to be received into such house, and of the means by which the one sex

may be kept distinct and apart from the other. And it shall not be lawful for said commissioner to grant any such license without having first personally visited the premises proposed to be licensed, and being satisfied by such examination that they conform to the description of the application, and are otherwise fit and suitable for the purposes for which they are designed to be used.

$10. Whenever said commissioner in lunacy shall become satisfied that any superintendent, chief medical officer, or person in charge of any State asylum or institution, or any county or municipal asylum or institution for the care, custody and treatment of the insane, or where the insane are received and treated, has willfully violated the laws of the State relating to such asylum or institution, or is incompetent or unfit for the position which he holds, or has been guilty of any neglect or misconduct in relation to the duties of his office or position, it shall be the duty of said commissioner to prefer charges, in writing, against such superintendent, chief medical officer or person in charge, to the board or body having the appointment of said superintendent, chief medical officer or person in charge, and it shall be the duty of said board or body to publicly proceed to investigate such charges, and to dismiss or retain such person so accused, as the justice of the case may require. And, on such investigation, said commissioner, under the powers conferred upon him by the third section of this act, shall compel the attendance and testimony, on oath, of such witnesses as the person against whom such charges shall be preferred shall, in writing, request, and he shall employ all the powers conferred upon him by said third section to procure all the witnesses and testimony which said person so accused shall, in writing, request

11. The term "public asylum or institution," as herein used, shall be construed to mean and include the State asylums and all asylums, poor-houses or institutions established or maintained by any county, city or municipal corporation, for the care and treatment of insane persons or persons of unsound mind, or where insane persons or persons of unsound mind are received, detained or treated. And the term "private asylum or institution" shall be construed to mean and include all asylums or institutions incorporated or otherwise (other than public asylums or institutions as above defined), in which insane persons or persons of unsound mind are received and detained, and all individuals who for compensation or hire assume the care and custody of such persons, and no such private asylums and institutions shall receive or detain any such persons without being licensed as aforesaid. But the provisions of this act shall not apply to cases where insane persons or persons of unsound mind are detained and treated at the houses of their families or relatives.

§ 12. The commissioner in lunacy may revoke the license of any asylum or institution which by the provisions of this act is required to be licensed, whenever he shall find that a state of things exists which would have justified him in refusing to grant such license. Should said commissioner refuse at any time to grant a license to any asylum or institution which by the provisions of this act is