WM. PRESTON LANE, JR., GOVERNOR. 1643

25. The Department of Mental Hygiene is empowered
to issue compulsory process for the attendance of witnesses
and the production of papers, to administer oaths and examine
persons under oath, and exercise the same powers as belong
to a justice of the peace in all cases where, from evidence laid
before them, there is reason to believe that any person is
wrongfully deprived of his or her liberty, or had been cruelly,
improperly or negligently treated in, any place or institution
or Almshouse; but in all cases in which said Department shall
take action or determine any question affecting any insane
person or persons supposed to be insane, or any institution
in which such insane or supposed insane person is confined,
the managers of said institution shall have the same right to
appeal from said action or determination of said Department
as is now allowed by law in cases instituted before justices
of the peace of the State; the Department shall be empowered
to present the offenders before the grand jury of the city or
county in which such offense may have occurred.

26. The Commissioner shall report annually to the Gover-
nor as promptly as possible after December 31st his acts and
proceedings; also make a report of all the different institu-
tions, public and private, and whether corporate or under in-
dividual management or control, including almshouses and
county asylums where the insane or feeble-minded are kept.
The report shall include a concise review of the work of the
several institutions under the supervision of the Department
for the year preceding, and such suggestions and recommenda-
tions as to said institutions and as to the general interests of
all persons under its supervision as he considers expedient,
and information embodying the experience of this country and
other countries relative to the best and most successful
methods of caring for such persons as come under the super-
vision of the Department.

30. No person or institution licensed by the State Depart-
ment of Health to establish, conduct, maintain or operate a
hospital, shall receive or detain any person committed under
Section 34 of this Article without first obtaining a license
therefor from the Department of Mental Hygiene.

31. Every application for such license shall be accom-
panied by a statement giving the number of patients, male
and female, to be provided for and such other details and in-
formation as the Department of Mental Hygiene may think
proper to require to enable it to decide as to the propriety
of issuing such license. The said Department is hereby
authorized to grant or refuse such license and said Depart-