The Poor, Insanity and State Charities Laws, Containing the Poor .

Albany, NY: Matthew Bender, 1896. Nineteenth-Century Digest of New York Charity and Insanity Laws Cumming, Robert C. Gilbert, Frank B. [1867-1927]. The Poor, Insanity and State Charities Laws: Containing the Poor Law; The Insanity Law; The State Charities Law; The Support of Bastards and Provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Relative to Bastardy Proceedings, Abandonment of Wives and Children and the Support of Poor Persons by Relatives; Provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure in Respect to the Care, Custody and Disposition of the Property of Lunatics, Idiots and Habitual Drunkards, and Special Acts Relative to the Poor in New York and Brooklyn. With Forms and Annotations. Albany: Matthew Bender, 1896. vii, 546 pp. Octavo (9-1/2" x 6"; 24 x 15 cm). Later library cloth, red and black lettering pieces and paper shelf label to spine, endpapers added. Light shelfwear, moderate soiling, light browning to text, minor chips to edges of a few leaves, library stamps and markings to title page, which is detached. $250. * First issue. Laws dealing with the poor and insane often provide interesting insights into societal perceptions of various groups and are in many ways the precursors of the modern welfare state. The preface notes: "The provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to the appointment of committees of Lunatics, idiots and habitual drunkards, and the disposition of the property of such incompetents, are inserted" (iii). Updated reissues of this work were published in 1897, 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1904. All are scarce. OCLC locates 4 copies of the first issue (New York Public Library, New York State Library, UT-Austin Law School, Vassar College). Not in the Harvard Law Catalogue (1909).…