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Responsibility for insane patients (particularly the indigent insane) housed in the New Orleans City
Insane Asylum (or in various hospitals after the city facility closed) fell to the City Physician, who was to
visit patients at least once a day and to discharge those patients who had sufficiently recovered. He also
identified those inmates who had remained in the asylum "over the time prescribed by law" and reported
their names to the sheriff of Orleans Parish, who arranged their transfer to the State Asylum at Jackson,
LA.

This volume contains information on insane patients visited by the City Physician and recommended to
the State Asylum. For each patient, the record includes name, race, sex, age, place of birth (in general
terms), type of insanity and sometimes a description of the patient's behavior. An index is included at the
end of the volume.

The records are those of Dr. Y.R. LeMonnier, who served as the New Orleans City Physician/Coroner
during the administrations of Mayors William J. Behan (1882-1884) and Walter C. Flower (1896-1900)
and during the second administration of Mayor Joseph A. Shakspeare (1888-1892). This volume was
used by LeMonnier primarily during his first term; apparently, he returned to it very briefly (for a single
day) when he resumed office in 1888. Similar records for other years are not extant.

For more information, see http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/inv/cityinsaneasylum.htm.