the direction of the board of health of each town or of a committee chosen for that purpose; and they shall raise all necessary sums of money, to defray the expenses of such inoculation, in the same manner as other town charges are paid.

OFFENSIVE TRADES.

SECT. 47. The selectmen of every town, and the mayor and aldermen of the city of Boston, respectively, when they shall judge it necessary, shall, from time to time, assign certain places for the exercising of any trade or employment, offensive to the inhabitants, or dangerous to the public health; and they shall forbid the exercise of either of them in places not so assigned; and all such assignments shall be entered in the records of the town or city; and they may be revoked, when the town or city officers shall think proper.

SECT. 48. When any place or building so assigned shall become a nuisance, by reason of offensive smells or exhalations proceeding from the same, or shall become otherwise hurtful or dangerous to the neighborhood or to travellers, and the same shall be made to appear, on a trial before the court of common pleas for the county, upon a complaint made by the board of health or by any other person, the said court may revoke such assignment, and prohibit the further use of such place or building, for the exercise of either of the aforesaid trades or employments, and may cause such nuisances to be removed or prevented.

SECT. 49. Any person, injured either in his comfort or the enjoyment of his estate, by any such nuisance, may have an action on the case, for the damage sustained thereby; in which action, the defendant may plead the general issue and give any special matter in evidence.

DANGEROUS DISEASES.

[See Acts, 1837, ch. 244; and 1848, ch. 119.]

SECT. 1. Whenever any person, coming from abroad, or residing in any town in this State, shall be infected, or shall lately before have been infected, with the plague, or other sickness dangerous to the public health, the board of health of said town shall make effectual provision in the manner which they shall judge best for the safety of the inhabitants, by removing such sick or infected person to a separate house or otherwise, and by providing nurses and other assistance and necessaries; which shall all be at the charge of the person himself, his parents or master, if able, otherwise, at the charge of the town to which he belongs; and in case such person is not an inhabitant of any town in this State, then at the charge of the Commonwealth.

SECT. 2. When any disease dangerous to the public health, other than the small-pox, shall break out in any town, the board of health thereof shall immediately provide such hospital or place of reception for the sick and infected as they shall judge best for their accommodation, and the safety of the inhabitants; and such hospitals and places of reception shall be subject to the regulations of the said board of health, in the same manner as is provided in the case of established hospitals, by the twenty-first chapter of the Revised Statutes; and the said board of health may cause such sick and infected persons to be removed to such hospitals or places of reception, unless the condition of the sick or infected person be such as not to admit of his removal without danger to his health, in which case the house or place where

such person shall remain, shall be considered as a hospital to every purpose aforesaid; and all persons residing in, or in any way concerned with the same, shall be subject to the regulations of said board of health, as before provided.

The provisions of the Act relating to Public Health, of May 2, 1849, are incorporated into the 30-34 sections of the proposed act, and adapted to towns as well as cities. Some acts, passed in 1850, are noticed in this Report, pp. 138, 149, 165 and 178.

IV. EXTRACTS FROM THE BY-LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON, IN FORCE PRIOR TO THE YEAR 1800.

When any drain shall be opened or laid, and the dirt or rubbish therefrom shall be laid in any street, lane, alley, or other public highway or place in this town, the person or persons opening or laying the same, shall cause a rail or other sufficient fence to be so fixed as to inclose such drain, and the dirt and rubbish thrown into the street as aforesaid; and such fence shall be continued during the whole time such drain shall be open or be laying or cleansing. And a lighted lantern or other good light shall be fixed to some part of such fence, or to a pole, or some other proper elevation over such open drain, and the dirt accruing therefrom, from the dusk in the evening, and shall be continued lighted until midnight, every evening or night during the whole time such drain shall lay open, or be laying or repairing; under the penalty that the person or persons, at whose cost, or by whose direction, the same shall be opened, laid or repaired, shall forfeit and pay the sum of four dollars for any and every neglect herein.

No person shall hereafter carry, cart or throw, or cause to be carried, carted or thrown, into any of the streets, lanes, alleys or other public places in this town, any dust, dirt, dung, soot, garbage, carrion, shreds, shavings, filth, soil, oyster shells or rubbish (other than in manner directed from time to time by the selectmen, or the board of health) or any offals, or any kind of thing made and accumulated, or being in any of their respective houses, out-houses, barns, stables, shops or yards, or in any of the dependencies thereof, or appurtenances thereto, any or either of them, upon pain of forfeiting and paying for every offence the sum of one dollar. And in case any person or persons so offending, shall refuse or neglect to remove such matter or thing before enumerated, in twelve hours after notice given to him, her or them so to remove the same, the said person or persons shall be subject to a. new penalty of two dollars for every such offence.

No person shall lay, cart or spread any dead carcass, ordure, filth, stones or rubbish upon any part of the Common, or common lands of this town, unless it be the dust and dirt of the town collected by the scavengers, or by those whom the selectmen or board of health may or shall contract with for collecting the dust and dirt from the houses, yards and public streets, lanes and alleys of the town, under the penalty of three dollars for every offence herein.

No person shall fire or discharge any gun or pistol from any top of any house, or in any of the streets, wharves, lanes, alleys, yards, pas

tures, gardens or other inclosures, or from the commons or hills in any part of this town, loaded with ball or shot, or powder only, unless in the just and legal defence of himself, some one or more of his family, or of his or her goods or property, unlawfully attacked, or attempted to be injured, taken away or destroyed, under pain of forfeiting and paying the sum of two dollars for every offence.

No person whatsoever driving any carriage or riding upon any horse, mare or gelding, in or through the said streets, &c., shall suffer the beast or beasts he shall so drive or ride to go in a gallop so as to endanger persons standing or walking in the streets, lanes or alleys.

And all carters and other persons having the care of any wagon, cart, truck, sled or drag, passing through or in the streets of said town, shall drive their beast or beasts at a moderate foot pace, and shall not suffer them to go in a gallop or trot; and if any such driver shall not hold reins in his hands to guide and restrain his beasts as in manner aforesaid, he shall walk by the head of the shaft or wheel horse, holding, or within reach of the bridle or halter of the said horse, in order to guide and restrain them in manner aforesaid; and every person wilfully or negligently offending in any or either of the cases aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay, for every such offence, a sum not less than two dollars nor more than five dollars.

And no coach, chariot, sleigh, chaise, sled or other carriage belonging to any inhabitant of this town, shall go or be driven through any part of the town, during any time or times that the snow shall be upon or cover the streets, without carrying or having some bell or bells fastened to the horse or horses drawing the same, or to some part of such carriage; that due and timely notice may be given to the inhabitants, of such carriage coming on, under the penalty of two dollars for every offence.

No person or persons shall hereafter erect or set up, or cause to be erected or set up, any necessary, or privy, in this town (or suffer any such to continue, being already erected, set up or standing) within forty feet of any street, lane, alley or other highway in this town, or within the like distance of the dwelling house, shop, or well of any of his, her or their neighbor or neighbors, unless the same be vaulted six feet deep, and sufficiently inclosed or otherwise well secured, under the penalty that the owner or landlord of every tenement to which the same shall belong, shall forfeit and pay the sum of three dollars, and also the sum of five dollars for every month the same shall continue and so remain.

And no vault of a necessary or privy shall be dug so as to communicate with any common sewer, or with any drain leading to a common sewer, unless the said common sewer shall have been built for the express purpose of receiving the filth from such vaults, and shall not be connected with the cellar of any house. And no vault of a necessary or privy shall hereafter be dug within two feet of the line of any lot, under the penalty that the person or persons offending against either of the above restrictions, shall forfeit and pay five dollars, and also five dollars for every month the same shall continue or remain.

V. RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE FIRST BOARD OF HEALTH OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON, ADOPTED IN THE YEAR 1799.-[See this Report, pp. 52 and 53.]

1. No hogsties or hogs shall be kept within the town without a license from the Board of Health, and except they stand over the water in such manner that the filth will be completely carried off by the ebbing and flowing of the tide.

2. No person shall be permitted to bring, sell or have in his possession within the town, any oysters, from and after the first day of June until the first day of September following, in each year.

3. No fresh fish shall be sold or kept in any stall, fish-box, or other house within the town, except such stall, fish-box or other house stands over the salt water.

4. No fresh fish shall be brought between the channel and the shore, or within the town, unless their throats have been cut, the blood cleanly washed off, and the gills and entrails taken out and thrown away-salmon, eels, live and small fish excepted; nor shall any fresh fish remain on board any vessel, stall, fish-box or other place for a longer space than twelve hours without being salted.

5. No person shall be allowed to sell any salmon, eels, or small fish within the town, without having a tight vessel, sufficiently large to hold the skins, heads and other offals of the said fish, and they shall put the same therein as collected and made, and after cause them to be thrown either into the channel, or otherwise carried out of town, before they become putrid or offensive.

6. No seller of fish shall scale any fish on the land within the limits of the town, or throw the heads of fish on any wharf or into the streets, lanes or alleys of the same.

7. All persons having stalls in Faneuil Hall Market House, the Market or Dock square, shall be obliged once in every day to wash and cleanse their respective stalls; and from and after the first day of July and until the first day of October next following, in each year, no heads or offals of dead creatures or vegetables of any kind shall be suffered to remain over night in either of the above places.

8. No feather or other beds, bedding or clothing, arriving from any place where a contagious disorder prevails, or hath lately prevailed, shall be landed within the town from any vessel, boat or craft, (though said vessel, boat or craft, may not have been directed to perform quarantine,) without permission in writing from the Board of Health.

9. No owner or keeper of a livery or other stable within the town, shall have more than two cart loads of dung at one time, proceeding from his said stable, from the first day of May until the first day of November then next following, in each year.

10. All graves for the interment of the dead shall be at least six feet deep, and the proprietors of the several churches within the town under which dead bodies are or may be deposited, shall cause at least three bushels of lime to be slacked under each of them once every fourteen days, from the first day of June until the first day of October next following in each year.

11. No person shall throw any dead animals or vegetable substances or the sweepings of vessels' holes into any of the docks, Mill pond,

bottom of the Common, or harbor within the channel and the shore, or land the same on any of the wharves within the town.

12. No person shall open or clean any vaults of privies within the town, without permission in writing from the Board of Health, from and after the first day of May, until the first day of November the next following in each year, but whenever and as often as the contents of any privy is within eighteen inches of the surface of the earth, they shall directly apply to the board for a license to empty the same, under such restrictions and regulations as they may direct, and empty the same accordingly.

13. No waste water shall be suffered to run upon the surface of the streets from any house, building, or yard abutting on a street in which there is a common sewer, but the same shall be led therein by the owners of the buildings.

14. Neither the proprietors of the Mill pond, their agents, tenants, any person employed by or under them, or any other person whomsoever, shall at any time after the fifteenth day of June, and until the first of October next following, in any year, draw off the waters of the said pond, in such manner as to cause the surface on the shoalest part to be dry, without a license therefor from the Board of Health.

15. No feathers shall be landed within the limits of the town of Boston, before the same have been examined by some person authorized for that purpose by the Board of Health, and a certificate obtained from him, that in his opinion the said feathers are free from infection, and may be landed without danger to the health of the inhabitants of the town; nor shall any hawkers or dealers in feathers expose for sale in the streets any feathers before the same have been in like manner examined, and a similar certificate obtained.

16. No person shall throw into any street, lane or alley, within the town, any dirt, filth, animal substances or sweepings of any kind, except on the days the scavengers of the wards pass through with their carts, when they shall bring the same, together with the sweepings and filth necessarily made in their yards, into the streets, before the hours of 9 o'clock, A. M., for the purpose of being carried away by the scavenger; and any of the inhabitants refusing or neglecting to collect and bring out their dirt, for the purpose as aforesaid, will be consid ered as violating the rules and regulations of the Board of Health; and in case any scavenger neglects to carry away said sweepings and filth, it is required of the inhabitants to whom such neglect is made, to enter on the same day a complaint against such scavenger, to the Board of Health.

VI. ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF BOSTON RELATING TO PUBLIC HEALTH, PASSED AUGUST 20, 1850. [See this Report, pp. 117-120.] SECT. 1. The mayor and aldermen shall constitute the Board of Health of the city, for all purposes, and shall exercise all the powers vested in, and shall perform all the duties prescribed to, the city council as a Board of Health; subject only to any limitations and restrictions contained in the ordinances, regulations and orders of the city council.

SECT. 2. The execution of the laws and ordinances relating to the