480 



ILLINOIS. 



and -witnesses, organized as a croquet-party, solemnly 

 played a game of croquet in his presence, observed 

 him, conversed with him, and then with equal so- 

 lemnity retired and found a verdict of insanity, which 

 was entered upon the record of the court, but never 

 communicated to the " accused" himself. 



The law to be adopted, in their view, is one 

 which should provide for the determination of 

 the sanity or insanity of a person alleged to be 

 insane, first, by an exhaustive personal exami- 

 nation of the case by competent medical men, 

 and second, by the submission of the evidence 

 in the case to the Judge of the Circuit or Pro- 

 bate Court for his approval ; and which should 

 also provide that the order of a Court shall be 

 an indispensable prerequisite to the admission 

 of any insane person into any hospital or asy- 

 lum ; and which should make the superinten- 

 dent of the hospital or asylum fully and pri- 

 marily responsible for the subsequent detention 

 of the patient, and for his discharge when re- 

 covered, or if he is found not to be insane. 

 Such a law meets all the fundamental require- 

 ments of a good law upon this subject. All 

 else is matter of detail. The details of such a 

 law are nevertheless worthy of careful study. 

 They are very important. Various questions 

 arise at once. For instance : Shall the medi- 

 cal examiners in each county be selected by 

 the patient or by the Court? and if by the 

 Court, shall special examiners be appointed for 

 each case ? or shall a permanent board of ex- 

 aminers be created in each county, and if per- 

 manent boards are established, shall they be 

 appointed by the courts or by the Governor ? 

 and if by the courts, by which courts the 

 Circuit or the County Courts? Again, what 

 shall be the necessary qualifications of a medi- 

 cal examiner in a lunacy case? Although per- 

 manent boards would accumulate experience 

 by practice, yet the Commissioners think it to 

 be more advisable to appoint special examiners 

 in each instance, both on account of their 

 greater nearness to the patient, and because 

 there may be special reasons for the employ- 

 ment of a particular physician in a particular 

 case. They would not allow the family of a 

 patient to select their own examiners, because 

 the Judge to whom an application is made for 

 an order of commitment would be likely in 

 many cases to make a wiser choice, uninflu- 

 enced by considerations which might affect 

 them. The Judge would feel a greater sense of 

 responsibility for the selection of the most 

 competent men, and a report made to him 

 by men in whose judgment he had confidence 

 would afford him a more solid basis for his own 

 action. Applications might be addressed to 

 judges either of the Circuit or County Courts, 

 and the Judge in all cases should appoint as 

 examiners only registered, competent physi- 

 cians, of good repute for intelligence and integ- 

 rity. Provision should also be made for a brief 

 report in writing, by the examining physicians, 

 of the reasons which satisfied them as to the 

 insanity of the party examined, and this report 



or a copy of it should be transmitted by the 

 clerk of the court, with the order of commit- 

 ment, to the superintendent of the hospital or 

 asylum, at the time when application is made 

 for the patient's admission. 



The question of the disposal of the criminal 

 insane was not overlooked. The number of 

 insane convicts in the State is twenty-eight. 

 The most feasible plan of disposing of them 

 properly, in the opinion of the Commissioners, 

 would be to build, in one or both of the peni- 

 tentiaries, an insane ward within the prison 

 walls. The erection of such wards would re- 

 lieve the hospitals and make room for as many 

 more insane who are not convicts. 



A general interest pervaded the State on the 

 subject of taxation, which led to some modifi- 

 cations of the existing laws by the Legislature. 

 The assessment of the capital stock of all com- 

 panies and associations organized under special 

 or general laws of the State was by the rev- 

 enue law of 1872 assigned to the State Board of 

 Equalization. In the interest of manufactur- 

 ing corporations, the Twenty-ninth General As- 

 sembly amended the general act by providing 

 "that, in assessing companies and associations 

 organized for purely manufacturing purposes, 

 or for printing, cr for publishing of news- 

 papers, or for the improving and breeding of 

 stock, the assessment shall be so made that 

 such companies and associations so organized 

 shall only be assessed as individuals under like 

 circumstances would be assessed, and no more; 

 and such companies and associations shall be 

 allowed the same deductions as allowed to in- 

 dividuals." The courts held that this clause 

 did not change or modify the law, for the rea- 

 son that such companies were not assessed at 

 any greater rate than individuals were under 

 like circumstances. 



An act of this Legislature, which took effect 

 on July 1st, takes from the Board of Equaliza- 

 tion the right to assess the classes of corpora- 

 tions named in the amendment quoted above, 

 and relegates the valuation of their property for 

 taxation entirely to local assessors. Gas compa- 

 nies (manufacturers of gas), brewing companies 

 (manufacturers of beer), and packing compa- 

 nies (manufacturers of provisions) all loudly 

 declare that the Board has no longer anything 

 to do with their property. Should it be so 

 held, that branch of the Equalizers' duties will 

 be considerably lessened. Out of the forty-six 

 companies against which a capital stock assess- 

 ment was made in 1878, twenty-seven will be 

 exempt under this amendment. It was pro- 

 vided that in 1880 and every fourth year there - 

 after there shall be a general assessment of 

 real property. It is to have an annual exami- 

 nation by the assessor for the noting of ad- 

 ditions to and destruction of improvements. 

 Equalizations are to be made, and personal 

 property is to be assessed, annually. The in- 

 tent of the framers and promoters of this act 

 was that there should be but one book, which 

 should start with the original assessment of the 



