years "to visit and examine into the condition of each city and county alms or poor house" and report. In the appointment of this board New York may have been influenced by the example of Massachusetts, which had appointed a similar board in 1863. The powers granted to the board were powers of inspection: superintendents and overseers of the poor still reported to the secretary of state.1

SINCE 1873.

We have seen that under the New York laws no ablebodied adult person of sane mind could come upon the state for support. The state bore the expense of maintaining a certain number of insane asylums, it undertook the education of a certain number of indigent deaf mutes, and it appropriated sums of money to certain private institutions: it dealt with "patients," "pupils," "orphans," "families of those in the militia,” never with paupers. One year's residence gave settlement: whenever any dispute concerning the settlement of paupers arose, the superintendent of the poor in the county settled the dispute, subject to appeal to the county court. The deliberate creation of a class of state paupers in 1873 is, therefore, worthy of special

note.

2

Section one of the act of 18733 defines a state pauper :

Every poor person who is blind, lame, old, impotent or decrepit, or in any way disabled or enfeebled, who shall apply for aid to any superintendent or overseer of the poor or other officer charged with the support and relief of indigent persons, and who shall not have resided sixty days in any county of this state within one year preceding the time of such application, shall be deemed to be a state pauper, and shall be maintained as hereinafter provided.

Laws of New York, chapter 424, 1870.

2 Ibid., chapter 36, 1872.

3 Ibid., chapter 661, 1873.

The second section authorizes the state board of charities to contract with the authorities of not more than five counties or cities in the state "for the reception and support in the poor-houses or other suitable buildings of such counties or cities, respectively, of such paupers as may be committed to such poor-houses as provided by this act," such poor-houses to be known as "State almshouses.' The state board might direct the removal of inmates from one institution to another. On the application of any superintendent, overseer of the poor, or other officer charged with the support of a poor person, any justice or judge might, on evidence that the person was a state pauper, issue a warrant for removal to the nearest state almshouse; the expenses of removal to be borne by the state. The keepers of the almshouses were directed to keep the clerk of the state board informed of the persons admitted, officers entering complaints, and of the judges committing; also of the discharge, absconding, or death of an inmate. The clerk must verify the statements made to him. Each almshouse must be visited periodically by some member of the board. The secretary of the board might remove persons expressing a preference for any other state or county, where such persons might have a legal settlement or friend willing to support or aid in supporting. Finally $25,000 was appropriated for the expense of carrying out the act.

In this same year the name of the state commissioners of public charities was changed to "The State Board of Charities," and the board was authorized to appoint in each county three or more persons, as visitors of poorhouses and charitable institutions, except such as were under state management.' The act also authorized the appointment of a state commissioner of lunacy. In the

year following the passage of the act defining state paupers, an amendment authorized the state board to contract with not more than fifteen counties for support of such paupers.' Each year the legislature appropriates a certain sum for the carrying out of this act. The appropriation in 1893 was as follows:

For the support and care of state paupers, forty thousand dollars; and it shall be the duty of said board [state board of charities], in their annual report to the legislature, to give a complete and itemized statement of the expenditures for state paupers during the preceding fiscal year.

Thus three classes of dependents were recognized under the New York laws: (1) town and city poor, (2) county poor, (3) state poor. Unsettled paupers not included in the definition of a state pauper were charges upon the county where they became chargeable; if they had been brought, enticed, or had come into the county, they were to be maintained where they were and notice given to the town or county liable for their support. The county superintendent or overseers receiving such notice must remove the pauper within thirty days, or deny the allegation of "such improper removal or enticing, or that their town (or county) is liable for the support of such pauper."

From the opening of the first state asylum the care of the insane has been a growing one absorbing more and more of the state's resources. Several large asylums have been crowded with patients; by 1875 asylums had been establishsed at Utica, Auburn, Poughkeepsie, Middletown, and Buffalo. Wherever the local authorities could satisfy the state commissioners that adequate provision was made for the chronic insane in the local asylums, such asylums were licensed to receive patients. 1 Laws of New York, chapter 464, 1874.

2 Ibid., chapter 546, 1885.

The commissioners might, if they regarded the provision made for the chronic insane inadequate, at any time direct the superintendents of the poor to remove such to the Willard Asylum within ten days.' Every institution where insane persons were confined was under the supervision of the state commissioner in lunacy: to him the keepers of all such institutions must report annually.2 An act of 18793 restricted the privileges of the state asylums for the idiotic, blind, insane, or deaf and dumb, to those who had resided within the state one year.

4

In 1889 the duties of the state commissioner in lunacy were transferred to a new commission in lunacy. The governor was authorized to appoint three commissioners: (1) a physician of ten years' experience, a graduate of some chartered medical college, to be chairman, to serve for a term of six years on a salary of $5,000 and travelling expenses"; (2) a member of the bar of ten years' experience, to serve a four years' term on a salary of $3,000 and travelling expenses; (3) a reputable citizen, to hold office two years and receive $10 a day for time spent, and expenses. This commission was to visit institutions and report measures adopted to "improve the care and treatment of the insane."

An act of April, 1890,6 for the curative treatment of the insane develops still farther the policy of state provision for the insane. The commissioner in lunacy, the chairman of the state board of charities, and the comptroller are constituted a "board for the establishment of

1 Laws of New York, chapter 713, 1871.

2 Ibid., chapter 446, 1874, title 10.

3 Ibid., chapter 272, 1879; amended by chapter 549, 1880.

4 Chapter 283, 1889.

5 Laws of New York, chapter 273, 1890, allowed an annual sum of $1,200 to each of the three commissioners for expenses.

state insane asylum districts and other purposes." There were to be as many districts as there were state asylums ; in defining the boundaries of these districts no counties were to be divided. Several sections follow providing for the enlargement of the state asylums, and in section seven the act continues as follows:

After sufficient accommodation shall have been provided in the state institutions for all the pauper and indigent insane of all the counties of the state, the expense of the custody, care, maintenance, treatment and clothing of the pauper and indigent insane patients in the state insane asylum shall not be a charge upon any county after the first of October next following but the cost of the same shall be paid out of the funds provided by the state for the support of the insane. It shall be the duty of the board created in the first section of this act to determine whether the accommodations are sufficient within the purview of this section.

It is made the duty of the state commissioners in lunacy to recommend the construction of new buildings when necessary to ease overcrowding. In section eleven the purpose of the act is set forth:

It is the intent and meaning of this act that, when and after the state shall have been divided into districts, as herein provided, and sufficient accommodations in state institutions shall have been provided for all the pauper and indigent insane of all the counties of the state, and certified as set forth in the eleventh section of this act, no insane person shall be permitted to remain under county care, but all the insane who are now, or may hereafter become a public charge, shall be transferred to the respective state asylums without unnecessary delay, there to be regarded and known as the wards of the state, and to be wholly supported by the state.

The commissioner in lunacy was to furnish each year an estimate to the comptroller of the expense of carrying this act into effect. The act did not apply to the counties of New York, Monroe and Kings, although those counties might come under the act upon electing so to do and in that case their county asylums would become state institutions. Idiots were not included under the term "insane." The act absolutely forbade the