500 GUARDIANSHIP OF NON COMPOTES MENTIS, INSANE, ETC. [ART. 53.

the county or city respectively where such court may sit, to arrest
and bring the person so charged before such court, and it shall be
the duty of the sheriff to obey such warrant; and such court shall
cause a jury of good and lawful men to be summoned by the said
sheriff to be impanelled forthwith, and shall charge said jury under
oath to inquire, in the presence of such person, whether he or she is
a habitual drunkard, incapable of taking care of himself or herself,
and the proceedings in such case shall be like those now authorized
by law in cases of persons alleged to be lunatic or insane; and the
rule of law and proceedings applicable to the property of lunatics,
shall apply to cases of persons declared to be habitual drunkards
under the provisions of this section, and of Article XXVI of this
Code, subtitle Maryland Inebriate Asylum, except when herein or
therein otherwise directed; and all persons who may be alleged to
be habitual drunkards, may dispense with the legal proceedings to
establish the same, and may with the approbation of the court, when
said petition may be filed, appoint his or her own committee, and
may voluntarily enter the Maryland Inebriate Asylum for a limited
time, and the board of trustees of the said asylum may retain such
person the length of time he or she may have agreed therein to re-
main; and if the person against whom the petition may be filed shall
be found by the jury to be a habitual drunkard, incapable of taking
care of himself or herself, it shall be the duty of the court to appoint
a committee of such person, and such committee shall, with the writ-
ten assent and approbation of the court, have the power of confining
such person in the said asylum for such length of time as the court
may in writing approve; but said committee, with the written assent
and approbation of the court, may at any time release from confine-
ment said habitual drunkard; and the period of confinement of said
habitual drunkard may by the said committee, with the written as-
sent and approbation of the court, be from time to time extended for
such periods as may be necessary for his or her complete reforma-
tion.