United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/27th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 228
Chap. CCXXVIII.—An Act to provide an insane hospital for the District of Columbia.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,The old jail to be fitted up for the insane, &c. That the Commissioner of the Public Buildings be, and he is hereby, authorized and required, under the direction of the President of the United States, and upon a plan to be by him approved, to cause such alterations to be made in the old jail as will adapt it for the reception and accommodation of the insane of the District of Columbia, and of such sick, disabled, and infirm seamen, soldiers, and others, as may, by competent authority, to be hereafter prescribed, be deemed proper to be received therein, which building, with one half of the ground occupied by the old and new jails, is hereby assigned for those purposes.
Board of inspectors to be appointed; their duties.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That on the completion of the said building, the President be authorized to appoint three respectable persons, residents of the city of Washington, to be a board of inspectors of the said institution, who shall hold their offices two years from the date of their appointment; and whose duty it shall be to have a general supervision of the concerns of the said hospital; to appoint the necessary subordinate officers thereof; to prescribe rules for the admission and due regulation of patients therein, and to make an annual report to Congress of their proceedings, and of the condition of the said institution.
Appropriation.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and there is hereby, appropriated, the sum of ten thousand dollars for the alteration of the said building, and improvement of the grounds, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Approved, August 29, 1842.