them up, or in some other way; that they should pay for all damage caused by their patients; and that lunatics should not go out before a fixed hour in the morning, and should return by a fixed hour in the evening. They were also prohibited from using fire, even to light their pipes, outside the house of their nourricier. An ordinance of 1790 directed the police to take precautions against damages by lunatics and by mischievous and dangerous animals. The medical service was instituted in 1838. The control and administration of the colony passed from the communal organization to the state under the law of June, 1850; and in the next year they were placed under the special direction of a commission whose composition and functions were strictly defined. In 1874 the communal authority was deprived of what little part in the nomination of members of the commission had been left it under the law of 1851.
The present system dates from 1882. It confides the inspection and surveillance of the patients to a superior commission, consisting of the governor of the province or his delegate, and a number of responsible local officers. To this commission—all of whom except one, a physician appointed by the Government, are ex-officio members—is added a "secretary receiver," appointed by the Minister of Justice, who is the real executive officer or director. The superior commission is charged with the general care of all that concerns the patients. It reports yearly on the reforms which seem to it to be needed; watches that all the regulations are enforced; and keeps the list of persons authorized to receive patients. It is supplemented by a permanent committee, at the head of which is the burgomaster, whose business it is to care for the interests of the lunatics, to look after the expense of boarding and taking care of them, to inspect their boarding-places, and to attend generally to the execution of the regulations. There is also a lodging committee, whose business it is to secure places for patients whose families, or the local boards by whom they are sent, have not already provided homes for them. Furthermore, the administration includes the very modest but very important guards of sections, appointed by the Minister of Justice, who are brought into more immediate contact with the patients than any other of the officers. They bear the administrative and medical orders wherever they are to go: they constantly go over the section to which they are attached, visiting the patient's lodgings at any time, and insisting on his room being shown to them at a moment's notice, and on seeing the patient himself if he is at home. They see that the patient is properly clothed, that he does not work too much, that his room is well kept, that he has suitable food; they report cases of sickness, help take the sick to the infirmary, and see that the medical prescriptions are respected. They also see that the patients are at home at the appointed hours, and have to put down any disorder of which a patient may be the occasion or the object.
