Chap. 128.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 1077 of the Code of Virginia,
as amended, in relation to State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-minded.
[H B 272]
Approved March 9, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That section
ten hundred and seventy-seven of the Code of Virginia, as amended,
be amended and re-enacted so as read as follows:

Section 1077. The superintendent of the State Colony for Epilep-
tics and Feeble-minded shall receive and care for such epileptic white
persons, male and female, not under ten years of age, and such feeble-
minded white persons, females of child-bearing age not under ten nor
over forty-five years of age and males not under eight years of age,
to whom such training would be of most benefit, who are legal res-
idents of Virginia, as under the laws of the State may. be committed
to the said colony, provided that in committing 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
shall be first received and admitted. And in order to promote the ob-
jects for which the said colony was established, for the protection of
society and feeble-minded and epileptic persons themselves, and that
those who are capable of being trained for self-support may event-
ually leave the institution and enjoy the life and liberty of the outer
world, the superintendent thereof and the said special board of direct-
ors shall, as far as practicable, provide suitable employment for such
patients and such training, both educational 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 institu-
tion is provided. The said special board of directors and superintend-
ent shall, as far as practicable, provide necessary school and indus-
trial buildings and employ such teachers as may be necessary for
these purposes, Until separate buildings for feeble-minded males are
provided, the superintendent may receive and care for with white
epileptic males, such white feeble-minded male patients as may for
urgent and distressing reasons require custodial care and treatment.
It shall be unlawful for any colony to receive and care for with
feeble-minded patients, any idiot, as defined by section ten hundred
and seventy-five. However, at those colonies where provision, by way
of a building or buildings, has or shall have been made for the re-
ception and care of idiots, they, when duly committed according to
the provisions of law as to the commitment of the feeble-minded,
and regardless of any age to which they shall have attained, shall
be received, segregated and cared for therein, apart from the feeble-
minded population of any such colony, or colonies; and among the
idiot population of any such colony or colonies, the sexes shall be
kept separate and apart. It is further provided that it shall be lawful
to transfer from the department of 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 such colony shall be enumer-
ated in the school census of the district and county in which the colony
is located, 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 appropriation for the support of the said
school, based on its population such as is made to the Virginia In-
dustrial School at Bon Air, and like institutions.

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