Ex parte Whitwell

— This is a proceeding upon habeas corpus, and it appears from the return to the writ issued herein, that at the date of its service the petitioner was imprisoned by the sheriff of San Mateo County upon a charge of maintaining within *76 that county a hospital for the treatment, for reward, of insane persons, without having procured a license so to do, as required by an ordinance adopted by its board of supervisors March 16, 1892. The ordinance referred to purports to be one “to license for purposes of regulation and revenue the business of keeping .... within the county of San Mateo .... hospitals, asylums, homes, retreats, or places for the care or treatment for reward of insane persons, or persons of unsound mind, or inebriates, or persons affected by or suffering from any mental or nervous disease, or who are suffering from the effects of the excessive use of alcoholic liquors.”

By the first section of this ordinance it is made unlawful to maintain within the county of San Mateo any hospital, asylum, or place for the care or treatment for re-ward of any insane person, or person belonging to either of the classes mentioned in the title of the ordinance, unless the keeper of…