CHAPTER 644.

OF THE INSANE

AN ACT in relation to the Admission of Insane Persons to the Delaware State Hospital, at Farnhurst.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:

SECTION I. Hereafter no person shall be received as a Certificate patient in the Delaware State Hospital, at Farnhurst, unless a certificate shall have been previously filed with the superintendent of said hospital; which certificate shall be made and signed by at least two physicians, residents of this State, who have been actively engaged in the practice of medicine for at least five years theretofore, and who shall be residents of the same state and county as the alleged insane person. Said certificate must state that the physicians have separately examined the person alleged to be insane, and that they have arrived at the conclusion of the insanity of such person from such personal examination and the history of the case; that the disease of the person is of such a character as requires, in their judgment, hospital care and treatment, and that said physicians, or either of them, are in no way related by blood to or conne6ted by marriage with such person, nor in any way connected with said hospital nor with any county almshouse in this State.

SECTION 2. The certificate provided for in the first section of this act must be made within one week after the examination of the person, as therein provided, and within two weeks of the time of the application for admission of such person to said hospital.

SECTION 3. Said certificate shall be signed by said physicians, who shall also make affidavit to the truth of the facts and statements therein contained; which affidavit may be made before any officer who by the laws of this State is authorized to administer an oath or affirmation.

SECTION 4. The officer before whom said affidavit is made shall certify to the genuineness of the signatures of said physicians, and also that said physicians have the qualifications as set forth in the first Section of this act.

SECTION 5. In all cases under this act, the certificate and other papers must be accompanied by an order of admission, signed by one or more of the trustees of said hospital.

SECTION 6. This act shall not apply to or be construed to embrace commitments to said hospital made by the Chancellor, or any court of this State, as provided by law.

SECTION 7. All acts and parts of acts in any way inconsistent with this act, or any of its provisions, are hereby repealed.

Passed at Dover, April 12, 1893.