Decisions of the State Board.

Ans. It is clearly the duty of the local board to have the nuisance abated, especially as the animal was buried contrary to the order of the city marshal, though a removal now will not give immediate relief, if ever. There is no fixed limit to the injurious saturation of the earth, and the consequent pollution of the water in such cases. It has been demonstrated that it can be carried more than a mile.

Where a hog-pen is maintained as a nuisance in close proximity to dwelling-houses, what is the duty of a local board of health regarding the same?

Ans-. The members of a local board of health are public officers. It is their duty to protect the people within their jusisdiction from all sources of filth, causes of sickness and all infectious or contagious diseases. The law is mandatory, not directory. It says they shall do so. Neither does it say they may put off their duty until "after harvest," but they shall meet at stated periods to make the necessary regulations therefor. If they fail in this they are guilty of neglect of official duty, and are liable to indictment, and the penalty thereof. A hog-pen in close proximity to dwelling-houses should not be permitted, and where a decent regard is had to public health they are not. The State Supreme Court has decided that local boards of health have power to prohibit them. Every person is entitled to free, pure air and water, and unobstructed light, and no person has the right to deprive them of either. It is the duty of local board to secure the enjoyment of those rights so far as comes within their powers. Hog-pens, foul privies, stagnant ponds, festering cess-pools are prolific sources of disease during the heated

term.

How can I get rid of a pen, in which hogs are fed on the buttermilk of eight hundred pounds of butter a day, just across the street from my residence, the stench from which has already caused considerable sickness in the family of myself and neighbors. The city council will do nothing.

Ans.-The State Board of Health can do nothing in the premises. The statute has given them no power in such cases. It is the sworn and official duty of a local board of health to protect its community from all sources of filth and causes of sickness. Local boards of

Decisions of the State Board.

an incorporated town or city have power to prohibit hog-pens within the corporate limits, and to abate them if they become a nuisance, and also to require them, if permitted to exist, to be kept clean. Failing to do this, a local board is guilty of neglect of official duty, and such failure, or neglect of duty, does not prevent the person injured from proceeding against a nuisance by injunction.

Where a nuisance is upon a homestead, which is exempt from execution, and the owner has no other property liable to execution; the owner refuses to remove the nuisance, and it is done by the local board, how can the expenses therefor be recovered?

Ans. This is a question of law for the courts to determine, and of which the State Board has no jurisdiction.

Where notice is given to a person to remove a nuisance from his premises, and he neglects or refuses so to do, who is the proper person to enforce the order? Is it the duty of the health officer of the board, and has he the authority to do so without bringing the matter before the board?

Ans. The health officer of a local board is an advisory officer. He is not a member of the board. He has no powers except such as are specially delegated by the board. He may enforce the orders of the board when so authorized. A city marshal, police officer, street commissioner, or constable, is the proper officer to enforce such orders.

TRANSPORTATION OF CORPSES.

Are there any exceptions to the rules for transportation of corpses, or is there any time of the year when they are not in force?

Ans.-No.

Where a child died from Croupal Diphtheria in 1882, would a disinterment of the body now for transportation and burial in another county come under rule two or three for the transportation of dead bodies?

Ans. It would

come under rule six, which declares that all disinterred bodies shall be deemed infectious. The disturbance of such a body would be unwise. The case cited comes directly within the jurisdiction of the local board of health, and its health officer.

Decisions of the State Board.

When a dead body has been prepared for shipment according to the rules of the State Board of Health, can a railroad company refuse to take it inside the baggage car, and order it put on the platform?

Ans.-There can be no question as to the authority of a railroad company to make such regulation as they deem best regarding the carrying of dead bodies. It is quite probable they might refuse to carry them at all on passenger trains.

Has there been any change in the rules for the transportation of corpses during the past six months?

Ans.-Rule six has been changed so as to require all disinterred bodies to be prepared for shipment in accordance with rules two, three and five. Placing a body in a vault is deemed an interment.

Does section four hundred and twenty of the Code of 1873, providing for the payment of expenses of local boards of health, apply to cities of the second class?

Ans. It does not. It applies only to townships, as the section distinctly says..

RETURN OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS.

Where Dr. A was in attendance in a case of obstetrics, and Dr. B was called, whereupon Dr. A immediately left, and the patient was delivered mechanically of a dead child, who should make return of the birth or death to the county clerk?

Ans.--Dr. B, the last physician in attendance; and he should report the case as a still-birth; not as a birth nor death.

Where, in an incorporated town, physicians and others neglect or refuse to report deaths to the recorder, and procure burial permits, is it the duty of the recorder to ascertain and record the deaths?

Ans. It is not the duty of the clerk of a city or town to ascertain the deaths, and causes thereof, that occur within the city or town. It is the duty of the local boards of health to require all deaths in their jurisdiction to be reported to the clerk. Laws will not enforce themselves. The State Board of Health has made certain regulations regarding burial permits, and it is the duty of local boards to enforce them. Short of this, they have not done their duty as public officers.

Decisions of the State Board.

How are physicians supplied with blanks on which to make returns of births and deaths?

Ans. It is, by statute, made the duty of the clerk of the district court of each county of this State, to furnish physicians in such county the necessary blanks on which to make their returns, and the blanks must be printed from forms prepared by the State Board of health.

Under Section five, Chapter one hundred and fifty-one, physicians are required to register their names with the clerk of the district court. Is it permissible to permit them to request the clerk, by mail or otherwise, to register their names, or must it be done by the physician in person?

Ans. To this statute the Attorney-general says the old maxim "qui facit per alium facit per se" (what a man does by another he does by himself), applies. A physician may authorize another to register for him; he may authorize the clerk to do so for him.

Are midwives still required to register with the county clerk, and if so, may they register without examination, if they have been practicing five years?

Ans. All persons practicing midwifery are required to register their name in the office of the clerk of the district court of the county wherein they reside, and to make return to said clerk of all live and still-births which may come under their supervision, on blanks to be furnished by said clerk. The penalty for neglect to make such return is ten dollars for each offense since April 3, 1880. The statute requires that all midwives who began practicing, in this State since April 9, 1886, shall procure a certificate from the State Board of Medical Examiners, authorizing them to continue in such practice.

The right to practice midwifery does not include, nor give the right to practice medicine. A midwife cannot prescribe medicine. for, nor treat the sick. To do so, a certificate must be procured from the State Board of Medical Examiners. The penalty for practicing medicine without authority is a fine of fifty to one hundred dollars, and imprisonment. A person is deemed as practicing medicine who makes a practice of prescribing or furnishing medicine for the sick.

Legislative Recommendations.

Where a physician attended a patient ten days, and on the tenth day discharged the patient in a rapidly convalescing condition, but four days after relapse occurred, resulting in death, whose duty is it to make return of the death to the county clerk, the attending physician not having seen the patient since discharged?

66

Ans. The statute says physicians shall make a return to the clerk of the courts all "births and deaths which may come under their supervision." The evident meaning of the term supervision," as used in the statute, is having the care of. In the case cited the physician who attended the patient would be deemed as having had supervision of him, and be required to make the return.

LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS.

Repeating what has been said in each previous report of the State Board, another two years' practical experience emphasizes and more fully demonstrates the imperative necessity for conferring greater power upon the State Board. Complaint upon complaint, and petition upon petition have been made by individuals, and entire communities, for relief from the existence of nuisances menacing and dangerous to the public health; and where investigation showed that either members of the local board of health, or prominent persons, were interested pecuniarily, socially or politically in the object of complaint whereby no relief could be obtained, through the agency specially vested with power to give relief, thus defeating entirely the intent and purpose of the law. In such cases, where from local causes and local influences the health laws of the State, and regulations of the State, are ignored and disregarded by local boards, authority should be vested in the State Board of Health to secure to commuities the full benefit of the statute. As an impartial and disinterested body, it should have mandatory authority regarding all matters concerning the public health, and