Chap. 81.—An ACT to amend and re-enact scctions 1039 and 1075 and 1077 of
title 12, chapter 46, of the Code of Virginia, 1919, relative to the insane,
epileptics, feeble-minded, and inebriates. ([S B

Approved February 25, 1922.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
sections ten hundred and thirty-nine, ten hundred and seventy-five and
ten hundred and seventy-seven, of title twelve, chapter forty-six of
the Code of Virginia, nineteen hundred and nineteen, be amended
and re-enacted to read as follows:

Section 1039. Idiots and feeble-minded to be returned.—If an
idiot, or feeble-minded person, not insane, be sent to or received in any
hospital for the insane, the superintendent thereof shall notify his
committee or legal representative, who shall promptly remove from
the said institution and may have him committed to the appropriate
colony for the feeble-minded. The cost of transportation of each idiot
or feeble-minded person to, and removal from, the hospital shall be
paid by the county or city in which he was committed.

Sec. 1075. Feeble-minded person and idiot defined—The words
“feeble-minded person” in this chapter 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 himself, others and the community, but who is not classible as an
“insane person” as usually interpreted. An idiot is defined to be a
person who from birth or by reason of failure of early development
has not attained the maximum mental age of three years according
to the Binet or other approved mental tests, and who is incapable
of making known his natural wants, to feed himself, and practically
deficient in the mentality of a normal child of three years of age.

Sec. 1077. Who to be received in the State colonies for epileptics
and feeble-minded; employment, training of patients, education, et
cetera. The superintendent of the State colony for epileptics and the
feeble-minded, 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 provided that in com-
mitting persons to the said colony and in 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 capable of being trained so as to support
themselves may eventually leave the institution and enjoy 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 employment for such patients and such training, both edu-
cational and 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 promote the
objects for which the institution is provided. The special board of di-
rectors and superintendent, shall, as far as practicable, provide neces-
sary school and industrial buildings and employ such teachers as may
be necessary for these purposes. Until separate buildings for the
feeble-minded are provided, the superintendent may receive and care
for white epileptic males, such feeble-minded male patients as may
for urgent and distressing reasons require custodial care and treat-
ment. It shall be unlawful for any colony to receive and care for
with feeble-minded patients any idiot as defined in section ten hundred
and seventy-five. However, on provision by the State of building
or buildings at any colony for the reception and care of idiots, they,
when duly committed according to the provisions of law as to the
commitments of the feeble-minded, shall be received and segregated
therein apart from the feeble-minded population of any such colony
or colonies. It is further provided that it shall be lawful to transfer
from the department for epileptics and feeble-minded in any colony
or colonies patients, whether epileptic or feeble-minded who from
mental deterioration may have reached the practical state of idiocy.
to be cared for'in such building or buildings. The children of school
age within the population of said colony shall be enumerated in the
school census of the district and county in which the colony is lo-
cated, as a part of the school population of the Commonwealth, and
annually the colony shall be entitled to receive from the State board
of education an appropniation for the support of the said school,
based on its population such as is made to the Virginia Industrial
School at Bon Air, the Reformatory at Laurel and like institutions.

2. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby
repealed.

3. An emergency existing, this act shall be in force from its
passage.