LUNATICS AND INSANE. 2093

An. Code, sec. 3A. 1916, ch. 566, sec. 3A. .

4. The County Commissioners or the Supervisors of City Charities,
as the case may be, shall investigate the financial condition of all persons
hereafter to be committed under the provisions of the preceding Sections
of this Article to any of the institutions mentioned therein, and also the
financial condition of their relatives or other persons legally chargeable
with their maintenance and support, in order to determine, in each case,
the ability of any such person, or of his or her relatives or other persons
legally chargeable with his or her maintenance and support, to make pay-
ment, in whole or in part, for the maintenance and support of such person
while an inmate of such institution. In making such investigation, the
County Commissioners and the Supervisors of City Charities shall require
reports or statements to be made to them by such relatives or other persons
upon such forms as may be prepared by the Board of Mental Hygiene.1 If
the County Commissioners or the Supervisors of City Charities, as the case
may be, shall determine that such person shall be required to pay for his
or her maintenance and support while in such institution, or that his or
her relatives or other persons legally chargeable with his or her main-
tenance and support shall be required to pay for the same, then, before any
such person shall be admitted into such institution, they shall make and
issue an order to that effect, and shall specify therein the amount of such
payments so to be made, which shall not exceed the rate of twenty dollars
per month, and the times when the same are to be made, and shall have the
power to require the relatives of any such person or others legally charge-
able with his or her maintenance and support, to enter into appropriate
and binding agreements with respect to the making of such payments, and
from time to time may modify or change the terms thereof, as circumstances
may justify.

All such payments shall be made to and collected by the County Treasurer
or the Comptroller of the City of Baltimore, as the cases may be, who shall
account for and pay over the same to the State Treasurer on or before the
first days of January, April, July and October in each and every year, and
at the same time they shall report to the State Treasurer the name of each
inmate on whose behalf such payments have been made, and the name of the
institution in which he or she is confined; and the amount of such payments
in excess of the sum of $100, provided by Section 47 of this Article, shall
be transferred by the State Treasurer to the credit of and shall be paid
by him to the institution wherein such person is confined; and nothing
contained in Sections 3, 4 and 5 shall be construed to affect in any way the
obligation imposed by said Section 47 of this Article.

It is the intent of Sections 3, 4 and 5 that a husband may be liable for
the support of a wife while an inmate of any such institution, a wife for
a husband, a father or mother, or both for a son or daughter, and a son or
daughter, or both, for a father or mother.

In case the property or estate of any person committed to any of the
said institutions as aforesaid is sufficient for his or her maintenance or
support, in whole or in part, while in such institution, then the County

1 Formerly the State Lunacy Commission.