CHAP. 106.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act approved March 13,
1912, entitled an act to establish on the farm of the Virginia State
epileptic colony, the Virginia colony for the feeble-minded, and to
provide for the commitment of feeble-minded persons to such colony.

B. 128.)
Approved March 4, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
the Virginia colony for the feeble-minded now located and in
operation on the land of the Virginia State epileptic colony, in
the county of Amherst, near the city of Lynchburg, Virginia,
as a separate department of the Virginia State epileptic colony,
for feeble-minded white persons committed to it by law, be and
is hereby constituted an institution of the State of Virginia for
the treatment, training and custodial care of white feeble-
minded persons.
2. The Virginia colony for feeble-minded white persons,
the board of directors of the Virginia State epileptic colony,
the superintendent and officers of which shall be ex-officio su-
perintendent and officers of the Virginia colony for the feeble-
minded, and the general board of directors of State hospitals
shall have the same general control over the said Virginia
colony for feeble-minded white persons as it now has under
the Constitution and laws of Virginia over the State hospitals
for the insane. The special board of directors of the Virginia
State epileptic colony is hereby authorized to erect and equip
such additional buildings on such part or parts of the land of
the Virginia State epileptic colony separate from the buildings
which are and may be used for epileptics, as may be provided
by the general assembly from time to time with proper appur-
tenances and equipment for the care, custody, control, training
and employment of such feeble-minded persons as may be com-
mitted under the law of the State to the said colony. The said
colony is to be maintained as a separate department of the Vir-
ginia State epileptic colony and separate books, records, and
statistical notes of its medical department for the feeble-minded
shall be kept and a separate report of such colony shall be made
by the superintendent in the annual report of the Virginia State
epileptic colony for each fiscal year; provided, however, that
inasmuch as certain provisions of the Virginia State epileptic
colony as heat, light, water, laundry, the bakery, products of
the farm, are enjoyed alike by both the departments of the
feeble-minded and epileptic, and it is impossible to segregate
the amount of expense in the support of the different depart-
ments, only one account shall be kept of the business operations
of the institution, and that shall be in the name of the Virginia
State epileptic colony.

The special board of directors and superintendent shall
receive and care for such feeble-minded white persons who are
legal residents of Virginia as under the laws of the State may
be committed to the said colony; providing that in committing
persons to the said colony and receiving them therein, those
indigent white 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 practicable, be first received and
admitted. And in order to promote the object for which the
said colony is established, for the protection of society and
feeble-minded persons themselves, and that those who are cap-
able of being trained so as to support themselves may eventually
leave the institution and enioy the life and liberty of the outer
world, the superintendent thereof and the said special board
of directors shall, as far as practicable, provide suitable em-
ployment for such patients and such training, both educational
und industrial as may be adapted to their capacities, and shall
see that such moral, medical and surgical treatment as they
may deem proper shall be given such patients in order to pro-
mote the objects for which the institution is provided. The said
special board of directors and superintendent shall, as far as
practicable, provide necessary school and industrial buildings
and employ such teachers as may be necessary for these pur-
poses; and be it further provided that until separate buildings
for feeble-minded males are provided, the superintendent may
receive and care for, with epileptic males, such feeble-minded
male patients as may for urgent and distressing reasons re-
quire custodial care and treatment.

4. The children within the limits of school age in the popu-
lation of the said colony shall be enumerated in the school cen-
sus of the district and county in which the colony is located and
an appropriation proportioned to the population shall be made
for the support of the school of the colony from the State pub-
lic school fund each year; provided that the teacher or teachers
selected by the special board and superintendent shall present
evidence of fitness and qualification to the satisfaction of the
superintendent of schools of the said county.

5. All the provisions of chapter seventy-five of the Code
of Virginia, Pollard, and the acts amendatory thereof and sup-
plementary thereto, in relation to the government and operation
of the hospitals for the insane and the duties of the commis-
sioner and the board of directors of State hospitals and the
superintendents, as well as the general law defining feeble-
mindedness and providing for the State care of the feeble-
minded, their commitment, admission and for the conduct of
institutions or colonies for the feeble-minded, shall, so far as
practicable, and as far as the same are not in conflict with the
provisions of this act, apply in construction, organization, main-
tenance, control, and operation of the colony hereby authorized
and established.

6. The words “feeble-minded person” in this act shall be
construed to mean any person with mental defectiveness from
birth or from an early age, so pronounced that he is incapable
of caring for himself 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
supervision and control for the protection and welfare of him.
self, others, and the community, but who is not classible as ar
“insane person’, as usually interpreted, provided, however, that
no feeble-minded person of the class commonly known as “con.
genital idiots”, that is, whose mentality is not beyond that o:
a normal child two years old, shall be admitted to the said col
ony until a separate building has been provided for that clas:
of feeble-minded persons.
7. The superintendent and special board of directors shall
keep in its employ some competent person trained in making
approved mental tests so that he or she may from time to time
make comparative tests of the mental condition of all patients
in the institution and to act with the representative of the State
board of charities and corrections in making such tests as may
be required by the board or the law.

8. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provis-
ions of this act are hereby repealed.