Responsibility for insane patients (particularly the indigent insane) housed in the 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 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.

View a visual representation of data on the City Archives blog.