Chap. 172.—An ACT to Incorporate the Inebriate’s Home.

Approved March 138, 1872.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
Peterfield Trent, William -W. Parker, William H. Taylor, W.
C. Mayo, Thomas J. Evans, Asa Snyder, Rev. J. L. Burrows,
Rev. J. A. Duncan, Rev. Joshua Peterkin, William S. Gilman,
W. Hall Crew, T. Wiley Davis, Wm. J. Glenn, D. W. Bohan-
nan, M. P. Handy, Wm. H. Wade, John B. Berryman, Rev.
George W. Dame, Rev. C. J. Gibson, George A. Bruce, Caleb
Jacob, J. Mortimore Kilgour, R. G. Staples, A. P. Abell, James
G. Blanks, John G. Jefferson, Rev. J. C. Perkins, John W.
Daniel, Rev. Thomas Hume, D. A. Brown, sen., and their asso-
ciates and successors, are hereby made a corporation by the
name and style of the “Virginia Inebriate’s Home” or such
other designation as may be selected by the corporators or
board of managers provided for in this act, with power to sue
and be sued, plead and be impleaded, contract and be contracted
with to receive by gift, grant, devise, or otherwise, property
real, personal and mixed, and the same to hold, use, lease con-
vey, mortzage and otherwise dispose of for the purposes here-
inafter mentioned ; to adopt and use a corporate seal, and alter
the same at pleasure; also to erect and maintain such build-
ings aud other fixtures and conveniences as may be deemed
requisite or necessary for the purposes of this corporation.

2. Said corporators or board of managers shall continue to
hold oftice until their successors are appointed at the first
annual meeting of the association hereafter provided for in
section ninth.

3. The object of this incorporation shall be the founding and
maintenance by voluntary contribution or otherwise of an instt-
tution for the care and reclamation of inebriates.

4. Said corporation may, from time to time, adopt such
by-laws and at pleasure abolish, alter or amend the same for the
management of its business, the conduct and government of
said institution and the inmates thereof, not inconsistent with
the constitution and general laws of this state, as to them shall
seem meet and proper.

5. Upon complaint on oath in writing by any two of the rela-
tives or friends of the party to any justice of the peace (they
having first agreed and entered into bondg with approved secu-
rity to pay all costs incurred by the investigation and future
proceedings), that any person is an habitual drunkard and lost
to self-control, and unfit to attend to any business, and that
there is good reason to believe that said inebriate would be
benefitted by treatment in the said inebriate home, it shall be
the duty of said justice to issue his warrant ordering such
person to be brought before him. He and two other justices
shall enquire whether such person be an habitual drunkard and
lost to self-control, and for that purpose shall summon his phy-
sician (if he have one), and if he have none, then some other
physician practising in the vicinity and other friends. If after
said examination, which shall be in writing, it shall appear that
the person so examined is an habitual drunkard and lost to
self-control, and that in the opinion of said justices that the
benetits of the Inebriate Home would possibly restore him to
sobriety and self-control, then such justices after said examina-
tion shall, in their discretion, hava power to assign the said
mebriate to the care and protection of the Inebriate’s Home,
there to remain under treatment until, in the opinion of the
constituted officers of the Inebriate Home, it will be safe to
allow him to go at large. But no person shall be compelled,
by the provisions of this act, to remain in the said home for a
period exceeding twelve months, without his consent entered in
writing on the records of the institution: provided, that noth-
ing in this act shall be construed so as to prevent any person,
who shall feel himself arcrieved by the judgment of the justice
aforesaid, from appealing to county or corporation courts of the
county in which he may reside, and the said appeal shall be
allowed as a matter of nght, and the said courts shall proceed
without delay and without any formal pleadings to review the
said proceedings, and the party accused shall have the right of ;
trial by jury to ascertain the fact whether or not he is an habit-!
ual drunkard and lost to self-control. If the jury aforesaid V
shall, by their verdict, decide that the accused is not an habitual f,
drunkard and lost to self. control, the said court shall enter an 4
order dismissing the whole proceedings and shall give a judg-

ment against the parties making complaint for costs: and pro- ¥
vided, further, that nothing in this act shall be construed: to {;

impair the right of habeas corpus.

6. That the Virginia Inebriate’s Home shall have power to F
receive and retain all inebriates who may enter it as patients, j,
either voluntarily or by committal of aforesaid justices.

7. The said Virginia Inebriate’s Home shall be entitled to R
purchase and hold such real and personal property as may be “
necessary for their purposes, or they may acquire property by
gifts or legacy, or in any other manner for the same purpose,
not prohibited by law. The buildings and patients of said i
Inebriate’s Home shall be subject and liable to the inspection 5
and control of the legal authorities, as is now provided by law
for the various insane asylums of this commonwealth.

8. All persons who shall pay into the treasury of this asso- v
ciation or to the corporators appointed by the legislature, the §
sum of ten dollars per annum, shall be considered stockholders, v
and as such, be entitled to vote for all the officers of the said
association at its annual meetings.

9. The board of corporators under this act shall meet at the
call of any three (3) members thereof in the city of Richmond
within thirty (30) days after the passage of said act of incor-
poration, and shall proceed to organize the association and fix
a day for its first annual meeting.

10. The justices committing an inebriate as before described J
in this act, shall, at the time of such commitment certify to the te
county court of ‘their county, the fact of such committal, and
the said court shall have power to appoint a committee to take c
charge of the said inebriate and his estate, both real and per- ©
sonal; said committee shall execute bond with such security as al
the court may require, conditioned for the faithful discharge of Fi
his duties, and he shall report to said court the time and circum- ;
stances of the release of such inebriate from the asylum to ©
which he may have been sent, and upon such report, if satis- he
factory, the said committee may be released from any further fe
responsibility.

11. This act shall be in force from its passage. C