58 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



them up, or in some other way ; that they should pay for all damage 

 caused by their patients ; and that lunatics should not go out before a 

 fixed hour in the morning, and should return by a fixed hour in the 

 evening. They were also prohibited from using fire, even to light 

 their pipes, outside the house of their nourrlcier. An ordinance of 

 1790 directed the police to take precautions against damages by luna- 

 tics and by mischievous and dangerous animals. The medical service 

 was instituted in 1838. The control and administration of the colony 

 passed from the communal organization to the state under the law 

 of June, 1850 ; and in the next year they were placed under the 

 special direction of a commission whose composition and functions 

 were strictly defined. In 1874 the communal authority was deprived 

 of what little part in the nomination of members of the commission 

 had been left it under the law of 1851. 



The present system dates from 1882. It confides the inspection 

 and surveillance of the patients to a superior commission, consisting 

 of the governor of the province or his delegate, and a number of re- 

 sponsible local oflicers. To this commission — all of whom except one, 

 a physician appointed by the Government, are ex-officio members — is 

 added a " secretary receiver," appointed by the Minister of Justice, 

 who is the real executive officer or director. The superior commission 

 is charged with the general care of all that concerns the patients. It 

 reports yearly on the reforms which seem to it to be needed ; watches 

 that all the regulations are enforced ; and keeps the list of persons 

 authorized to receive patients. It is supplemented by a permanent 

 committee, at the head of which is the burgomaster, whose business 

 it is to care for the interests of the lunatics, to look after the expense 

 of boarding and taking care of them, to inspect their boarding-places, 

 and to attend generally to the execution of the regulations. There is 

 also a lodging committee, whose business it is to secure places for pa- 

 tients whose families, or the local boards by whom they are sent, have 

 not already provided homes for them. Furthermore, the administra- 

 tion includes the very modest but very important guards of sections, 

 appointed by the Minister of Justice, who are brought into more im- 

 mediate contact with the patients than any other of the officers. They 

 bear the administrative and medical orders wherever they are to go : 

 they constantly go over the section to which they are attached, visit- 

 ing the patient's lodgings at any time, and insisting on his room being 

 shown to them at a moment's notice, and on seeing the patient himself 

 if he is at home. They see that the patient is properly clothed, that 

 he docs not work too much, that his room is well kept, that he has 

 suitable food ; they report cases of sickness, help take the sick to the 

 infirmary, and see that the medical prescriptions are respected. They 

 also see that tlie patients are at home at the appointed hours, and have 

 to put down any disorder of which a patient may be the occasion or 

 the object. 



