Chap. 207.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act to es-
tablish on the land of the Central State Hospital, in the county of
Dinwiddie, Virginia, the Central State Colony for the Feeble-minded,
to provide for the commitment of feeble-minded persons to such colony
and for the examination and furloughing of such persons.

(S. B. 63.)
Approved March 16, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
there shall be, and is hereby, created and established a colony
for the feeble-minded colored persons, which shall be located on
the land of the Central State Hospital, in the countv of Din-
widdie, Virginia, and be a separate department of that insti-
tution.

2. The colony for the feeble-minded colored persons shall
be managed by the special board of directors of the Central
State Hospital, and the superintendent and the other officers and
the employees thereof shall be selected and appointed in the
manner provided by section sixteen hundred and sixty-three of
the Code of Virginia, as amended, but the general board of direc-
tors shall have the same control and management of the said
colony for the feeble-minded colored persons as it now has under
the Constitution and laws of Virginia over the State hospitals
for the insane. The said special board of directors is hereby
authorized and directed to proceed as soon as practical to
erect on a site to be selected by them, which site shall be upon
the land of the Central State Hospital, but separate from the
present buildings occupied by the said hospital, suitable build-
ings, with the proper appurtenances and equipment for the care,
custody, control, training and employment of such feeble-minded
perscns as may be committed under the laws of the State to
the said colony.

When the buildings to be erected at said colony shall be
ready for. the reception and care of patients, and as rapidly as
the proper accommodations for them can be provided, the said
special beard of directors shall proceed to receive and care for
such feeble-minded colored persons who are citizens of Virginia,
as under the laws of the State may be admitted to the said
colony; provided that in committing persons to the said colony
and in receiving them therein those indigent colored persons
who would be most likely to receive benefit from colony care and
training, women of child-bearing age, from twelve to forty-five
years of age, and children not under eight years of age, to whom
such training would be of most benefit shall, as far as practical,
be first received and admitted. And in order to promote the
objects for which said colony is established, the superintendent
thereof and the said special board of directors, shall, as far as
practicable, provide suitable employment for such patients, and
such training as may be adapted to their capacities, and to
that end shall, as soon as practical, provide such buildings and
employ such teachers as may be necessary for these purposes.

4. All the provisions of seventy-five of the Code of Vir-
ginia, Po'lard, and the acts amendatory thereof and supple-
mentary thereto, in relation to the government and operation
of the hospitals for the insane and the duties of the commis-
sioners and the boards of directors of State hospitals and the
superintendents shall, so far as practical, and so far as the same
are not in conflict with the provisions of this act, apply in con-
struction, organization, maintenance, control and operation of
the colony hereby created and established.

5. The words “feeble-minded person” in this act shall be
construed to mean any person with mental defectiveness from
kirth or from an early age, so pronounced that he is incapable
of caring for ..imself or managing his affairs, or of being taught
to do so, and is unsafe and dangerous to himself and others, and
to the community, and who, consequently, requires care, super-
vision and control for the protection and welfare of himself,
sf others and of the community, but who is not classible as an
“insane nerscn,” as usually interpreted.

6. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the pro-
visions of this act are hereby repealed.