ART. 59 PAYMENTS BY COUNTIES AND BALTIMORE CITY. 1431

from said county for such patient or patients. The superintendents
of each state hospital shall certify to the state comptroller on the first
day of January, April, July and October of each year the amount not
previously certified to by him that is due the said hospital for the insane
from the several counties having patients chargeable thereto, and said
comptroller shall pass the same to the credit of the several state
hospitals for the insane. The state comptroller shall thereupon notify
the county treasurer of each county so owing of the amount thereof
and charge the same to said county, and the board of county commis-
sioners of said county shall levy a tax in said county for said amount
and pay the amount due the State into the state treasury; and, should
any county fail to levy a tax in said county for said amount when due
said State and shall fail at the time of levying other county taxes, there-
after to levy the tax aforesaid to amount sufficient to pay the indebted-
ness subsequently incurred, it shall be the duty of the attorney-general
to bring in the name of the State au action against any county in the
circuit court for such county so failing aforesaid to enforce the levying
of said tax for the recovery of the amount due the State, as aforesaid.
Upon the failure of any county to levy such tax as aforesaid to an
amount sufficient to pay the amount then due the State, it shall be the
duty of the state comptroller to charge such delinquent county with a
penalty of interest at one per centum per month upon the amount of
indebtedness for each month until payment thereof and penalty thereon
be paid. It shall be the duty of the county treasurer, upon the collec-
tion of the taxes herein required to be levied, to pay into the state
treasury the amount due and owing from his county at the time and in
the manner required for the payment of State taxes collected, and the
state comptroller and the state treasurer shall upon the first day of
July and J anuary in each year transfer the full amount received from
counties under the provisions of this article to the account of the state
hospitals for the insane. Taxes levied and collected in any county for
the purpose named in this article shall be used only to defray the
expenses of the insane, and shall not be diverted to any other purpose,
nor be transferred to any other fund by the State or county authorities.
Whenever the superintendent of any state hospital for the insane has
held and treated a patient as from one county or the county commis-
sioners of such county makes claim that such patient is not a proper
charge against the said county and such county commissioners shall
notify the state comptroller that it is claimed by them that such patient
is not a proper charge against their county, and shall claim that the said
patient is a proper charge against some other county, it shall be the duty
of the county commissioners of each of said counties to file such proofs
as they may have wi th the state comptroller within thirty days from the
time of such notification, and thereupon it shall be the duty of the
state comptroller to investigate the question of the residence of such
patient and to determine of what county said patient is a proper charge,
and shall thereupon notify each of said counties of such determination,
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