MANUAL 
FOR THE USE OF 
BOARDS OF HEALTH 
OF 
MASSACHUSETTS, 
p » * 
CONTAINING 
THE STATUTES RELATING TO THE PUBLIC HEALTH, AND THE 
DECISIONS OF THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MAS- 
SACHUSETTS RELATING TO THE SAME (STATUTE 
RELATING TO THE ADULTERATION OF FOOD 
AND DRUGS INCLUDED). 
PREPARED BY DIRECTION OF THE 
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, LUNACY, AND CHARITY. 
BOSTON: 
BanU, £oetp, & Co., Printcro to tlje Commonwealth 
117 Franklin Street. 
1882. INTRODUCTION. 
This manual, containing all the statutes relating to the sub- 
ject of the public health, has been prepared by George F. Piper, 
counsellor-at-law and member of the Cambridge Board of Health. 
Following each section will be found every decision of the 
Supreme Court of the State upon the subject-matter of that 
section. 
The marginal notes refer to the chapter and section of the 
Public Statutes, where each section, so indicated, may be found. 
The statutes impose upon boards of health the duty of pro- 
tecting the people from those causes and influences which may 
injuriously affect their health. In the words of Judge Wells in 
the case of City of Salem v. Eastern Bailroad Company, "Their 
action is intended to be prompt and summary. They are clothed 
with extraordinary powers for the protection of the community 
from noxious influences affecting life and health; and it is im- 
portant that their proceedings should be delayed as little as pos- 
sible. Delay might defeat all beneficial results; and the necessity 
of the case, and the importance of the public interests at stake, 
justify prompt action." MANUAL. 
STATE BOARD. 
1. The state board of health, lunacy, and charity shall consist of 
nine persons. The present members thereof shall continue to hold 
their offices during the terms for which thej- were appointed. Two 
members of the board shall retire each year, in the order of their 
appointment, except every fifth year, when one shall retire. The 
appointments or re-appointments to fill vacancies occurring from 
expiration of terms of office shall be for five years ; and all vacan- 
cies which may occur from that cause or otherwise shall be filled by 
the governor, with the advice and consent of the council. 
The state board of health, lunacy, and charity was originally established 
by chap. 291, Acts of 1879. 
2. The state board of health, lunacy, and charity shall take cog- 
nizance of the interests of health and life among the citizens of the 
commonwealth. It shall make sanitary investigations and inquiries 
in respect to the causes of disease, and especially of epidemics and 
the sources of mortality and the effects of localities, employments, 
conditions, and circumstances, on the public health; and shall 
gather such information in respect to those matters as it may deem 
proper for diffusion among the people. It shall advise the govern- 
ment in regard to the location of any public institutions. 
The state board of health was originally established by chap. 420, Acts of 
1869. 
Its powers were subsequently enlarged by chap. 167, Acts 1871, and chap. 
183, Acts 1878. 
By chap. 291, Acts 1879, it was abolished, and its powers transferred to the 
state board of health, lunacy, and charity. 
3. If small-pox or any other contagious or infectious disease 
dangerous to the public health exists, or is likely to exist, in any 
place within the state, the state board shall investigate the same, 
and the means of preventing the spread thereof, and shall consult 
Public Statutes, 
c. 79, § 1. 
Certain general 
powers and 
duties of the 
state board of 
health, lunacy, 
and charity. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 1. 
Further duties 
in ease of con- 
tagious diseases. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 2. 6 
thereon with the local authorities, and shall have co-ordinate powers 
as a board of health, in every place, with the board of health or 
health officer thereof, or with the mayor and aldermen or the select- 
men, if no such board or officer exists in such place. 
TOWN AND CITY" BOARDS OF HEALTH. 
4. A town, respecting which no provision is made by special law 
for choosing a board of health, may, at its annual meeting or at a 
meeting legally warned for the purpose, choose a board of health 
by ballot, to consist of not less than three nor more than nine per- 
sons ; or may choose a health officer. If no such board or officer is 
chosen, the selectmen shall be the board of health. 
5. Except where different provision is made by law, the city 
council of a city may appoint a board of health ; may constitute 
either branch of such council, or a joint or separate committee of 
their body, a board of health, either for general or special purposes ; 
and may prescribe the manner in which the powers and duties of 
the board shall be exercised and carried into effect. In default of 
the appointment of a board with full powers, the city council shall 
have the powers and perform the duties prescribed to boards of 
health in towns. 
Where, by an ordinance of a city, two members of .the board of mayor and 
aldermen, and three members of the common council, were constituted the 
board of health, and no provision as to the mode of appointment was made 
by the ordinance, or by the joint rules and orders of the city council, but the 
orders of each branch provided that all committees should be appointed by 
the mayor and the president of the common council respectively, it was held 
that the members of the joint committee, constituted by the ordinance a 
board of health, were duly appointed by the presiding officers of each branch, 
and that the board so constituted and appointed was legally organized. 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 254. 
Where the city council constitutes the board of health, the power to make 
regulations as it judges necessary for the public health and safety respecting 
nuisances, sources of filth, and causes of sickness, may as well be exercised 
by an ordinance as by any other form of regulation. 
Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 224. 
In default of the appointment of a board of health, and where the city 
council constitutes the board of health, an ordinance which prohibits the 
keeping or maintaining swine within certain districts of the city, under a 
penalty not exceeding twenty dollars for each offence, is valid as a health 
regulation. 
Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 221. 
It is a matter of considerable doubt whether the prohibition of offensive 
trades is the proper subject of an ordinance or by-law, because that matter is 
specially provided for by statute, and to prohibit their exercise in any partic- 
ular locality in a town or city by a by-law or ordinance would interfere with 
the right of appeal to a jury which the statutes secure. 
Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 223. 
Towns may 
choose board 
of health, etc., 
or selectmen, 
to act. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 3. 
City council 
may appoint 
sucli board; or 
shall itself act. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 4. 7 
6. Every such board of health may appoint a physician to the 
board, who shall hold his office during its pleasure. 
7. Such board shall establish the salary or other compensation of 
such physician, and shall regulate all fees and charges of persons 
employed by it in the execution of the health laws and of its own 
regulations. 
8. Present members of boards of health of cities by appointment 
under chapter one hundred and thirty-three of the statutes of the 
year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, shall continue to hold 
office during the terms for which they were appointed, unless sooner 
removed as provided by law. 
9. In each city, except Boston, in which a majority of the voters 
shall have so voted according to law, there shall be a board of 
health, consisting of the city physician, and two persons, not mem- 
bers of the city council, appointed by the mayor and aidermen. 
The term of office of the appointed members shall be two years, 
and one of them shall retire from office on the first Monday of 
February in each year. If such board is not already in existence, 
the mayor and aidermen shall in January next after the vote of the 
city authorizing such board appoint two members, one for one year, 
and the other for two years ; and the board shall enter on its duties 
on the first Monday of February after such appointment. All va- 
cancies occurring in boards already in existence or in those here- 
after constituted shall be filled by the mayor with the approval of 
the board of aidermen. Each member so appointed shall be subject 
to removal by the mayor for cause, and shall receive such compen- 
sation as the city council may from time to time determine. 
10. Such boards shall organize annually by the choice of one of 
their number as chairman ; they may also choose a clerk, not a 
member of the board, and make such rules and regulations for 
their own government and for the government of all subordinate 
officers in their department as they may deem expedient. 
11. Such boards may exercise all the powers vested in, and shall 
perform all. the duties prescribed to, city councils or mayors and 
aidermen as boards of health, under the statutes and ordinances in 
force in their respective cities on the seventeenth day of May in the 
year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven ; and may appoint such 
subordinate officers, agents, and assistants as they may deem neces- 
sary, and may fix their compensation and that of their clerk ; but 
the whole amount of such compensation shall not exceed the sum 
appropriated therefor by the city council. 
12. In each city such board of health shall annually, in January, 
present to the city council a report made up to and including the 
thirty-first day of the preceding December, and containing a full 
Board may 
appoint 
physician. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 5. 
Compensation 
of physician, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 6. 
Present mem- 
bers of city 
boards of health 
under St. 1877, 
133, to remain 
in office. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 7. 
Boards of health 
to be appointed 
in cities, when. 
Term of office, 
removal, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 8. 
how to be 
organized. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 9. 
powers and 
duties. 
Public Statu es, 
c. 80, § 10. 
to make an- 
nual reports. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 11. 8 
and comprehensive statement of its acts during the year, and a 
review of the sanitary condition of the city; it shall also, when 
the city council or the standing committee thereof on finance so 
requires, send to the auditor of accounts an estimate in detail of 
the appropriations required by its department during the next 
financial year. 
13. Such boards may prepare and enforce in their respective 
cities such regulations as they may deem necessary for the safety 
and health of the people, with reference to house drainage and its 
connection with public sewers, where a public sewer abuts the 
estate to be drained. 
14. If at any time a city has not voted to accept the five pre- 
ceding sections, or chapter one hundred and thirty-three of the 
statutes of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, and fifty 
voters residing therein present a written request to that effect thirty 
days prior to any meeting for the election of city officers therein, 
the mayor and aidermen shall notify and warn the legal voters 
thereof to vote upon the acceptance of said sections at such 
election. 
15. In case of a severe epidemic, or other danger to the public 
health, the mayor and aidermen of the city where there is no board 
of health may, upon the request of one hundred voters residing 
therein, appoint such a board to act during the emergency, with 
the powers and duties of a board of health duly appointed under 
section eight. [Chapter 80, Public Statutes.] 
1G. In cities where the city physician is ex officio a member of 
the board of health, he shall be appointed by the mayor, with the 
approval of the board of aidermen, for a term of three years, sub- 
ject to removal, for cause, by the same authority. 
17. The board of health in a city or town may appoint an agent 
or agents to act for it in cases of emergency, or when it cannot be 
conveniently assembled; and such agent so appointed shall have 
all the authority which the board appointing him had ; but he shall, 
within two days, report his action in each case to it for its approval, 
and shall be directly responsible to it and under its control and 
direction. An agent appointed to make sanitary inspections may 
make complaint in cases of violation of any law, ordinance, or 
by-law relating to the public health in a city or town. 
18. The board of health of a city or town shall retain charge of 
any case arising under the provisions of this chapter in which it 
, shall have acted, to the exclusion of the overseers of the poor. 
Boards of health 
may enforce 
regulations as 
to house 
drainage. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 12. 
Cities to vote 
on acceptance 
of five preced- 
ing sections, 
when. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 13. 
In case of 
epidemic, etc., 
boards of health 
may be ap- 
pointed in cities 
not accepting, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 14. 
City physician, 
how appointed, 
when ex officio 
a member of 
board; how 
removed. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 15. 
Board of 
health may 
appoint 
agents, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 16. 
to retain 
charge of a 
case, after act- 
ing therein. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 17. 9 
NUISANCES, CONTAGION, ETC. 
19. The board of health of a town shall make such regulations 
as it judges necessary for the public health and safety, respecting 
nuisances, sources of filth, and causes of sickness, within its town, 
or on board of vessels within the harbor of such town, and respect- 
ing articles which are capable of containing or conveying infection 
or contagion, or of creating sickness, brought into or conveyed 
from its town, or into or from any vessel. Whoever violates any 
such regulation shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred 
dollars. 
The keeping of swine may be prohibited as a sanitary regulation. The 
prohibition may apply to the entire town or city, or only to a part of the 
town or city, if that part is so situated as to require peculiar and exceptional 
provisions. 
Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 221. 
A. regulation that no person shall remove, cart, or carry through any of 
the streets, lanes, or alleys of a city, any house-dirt, refuse, offal, filth, or 
animal or vegetable substance from any of the dwelling-houses or other 
places occupied by the inhabitants, in any cart, wagon, truck, hand-cart, or 
other vehicle, unless such person so removing, together with the cart, shall 
be duly licensed for that employment and purpose by the mayor and aider- 
men, upon such terms and conditions as they shall deem the health, com- 
fort, convenience, or interest of the city require, on pain of forfeiting a sum 
not less than three dollars nor more than twenty, is valid. 
Henry Vandine, petitioner, 6 Pickering, 187. 
20. The board shall give notice of all regulations made by it by 
publishing the same in some newspaper of its town, or, where there 
is no such newspaper, by posting them up in some public place in 
the town. Such notice shall be deemed legal notice 'to all penons. 
Notice must be given of general regulations prescribed by the board, 
before parties can be held in fault for a disregard of their requirements. 
But although such general regulations may seriously interfere with the en- 
joyment of private property, and disturb the exercise of valuable private 
rights, no previous notice to parties so to be affected by them is necessary to 
their validity. They belong to that class of police regulations to which all 
individual rights of property are held subject, whether established directly 
by enactments of the legislative power, or by its authority through boards of 
local administration. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 443. 
21. The board shall examine into all nuisances, sources of filth, 
and causes of sickness, within its town, or in any vessel within the 
harbor of such town, that may in its opinion be injurious to the 
health of the inhabitants, and shall destroy, remove, or prevent 
the same as the case may require. 
22. The board or the health officer shall order the owner or 
occupant at his own expense to remove any nuisance, source of 
Board of health 
to make regula- 
tions respecting 
nuisances, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 18. 
to give notice 
of regulations. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 19. 
to examine 
into and abate 
nuisances, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 20. 
to order cer- 
tain nuisances, 
etc., abated by 
owner. 10 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 21. 
filth, or cause of sickness, found on private property, within 
twenty'four hours, or such other time as it deems reasonable, after 
notice served as provided in the following section ; and if the 
owner or occupant neglects so to do, he shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding twenty dollars for every day during which he knowingly 
permits such nuisance or cause of sickness to remain after the time 
prescribed for the removal thereof. 
The board may order the removal of a nuisance without previous notice 
to the owner or occupant, and without any opportunity by him to be heard. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 443. 
In the above case, Wells, J., says, in relation to boards of health, "Their 
action is intended to be prompt and summary. They are clothed with ex- 
traordinary powers for the protection of the community from noxious influ- 
ences affecting life and health, and it is important that their proceedings 
should be embarrassed and delayed as little as possible by the necessary 
observance of formalities. Although notice and opportunity to be heard 
upon matters affecting private interests ought always to be given when prac- 
ticable, yet the nature and object of those proceedings are such that it is 
deemed to be most for the general good that such notice should not be essen- 
tial to the right of the board to act for the public safety. Delay for the pur- 
pose of giving notice, involving the necessity either of public notice or of 
inquiry to ascertain who are the parties whose interests will be affected, and 
further delay for such hearings as the parties may think necessary for the 
protection of their interests, might defeat all beneficial results from an 
attempt to exercise the powers conferred upon boards of health. The neces 
sity of the case and the importance of the public interests at stake justify 
the omission of notice to the individual." 
The adjudication of the board that a nuisance exists is conclusive, and 
no appeal lies therefrom. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 449. 
The board should keep an accurate record of their proceedings, and all 
adjudications should appear therein in clear and distinct language. 
23. Such order shall be made in writing, and served by any 
person competent to serve a notice in a civil suit, personally on 
the owner, occupant, or his authorized agent; or a copy of the 
order may be left at the last and usual place of abode of the owner, 
occupant, or agent, if he is known and within the state. But if 
the premises are unoccupied and the residence of the owner or 
agent is unknown or without the state, the notice may be served 
by posting the same on the premises and advertising in one or 
more public newspapers in such manner and for such length of 
time as the board or health officer may direct. 
The manifest purpose of this provision is to enable the owner or occupant 
to remedy the evil in the mode least detrimental or offensive to himself, and 
thus secure himself and his premises from the intrusion of the agents of 
the board of health. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. 
Order for abate- 
ment, how 
served. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 22. 11 
The order addressed to a person directing him to remove a nuisance 
should describe the nature and locality of the nuisance. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. 
It is not the purpose of the order to direct in what mode the person 
should proceed to remove the nuisance. 
It should direct the end to be accomplished, leaving the party to adopt 
any effectual mode which he may choose. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. 
An order of a board of health, reciting that a railroad company, by filling 
up parts of a mill-pond in Salem, without supplying suitable and safe cul- 
verts, sluiceways, trenches, and other means of drainage, have created and 
are maintaining a nuisance at said pond, which is dangerous to the public 
health, and a cause of sickness to the inhabitants, and requiring the com- 
pany to remove said nuisance and cause of sickness within seven days after 
service of notice of the order, sufficiently informs the company of the nature 
and locality of the nuisance. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 431. 
24. If the owner or occupant fails to comply with such order, 
the board may cause the nuisance, source of filth, or cause of sick- 
ness, to be removed, and all expenses incurred thereby shall be 
paid by the owner, occupant, or other person who caused or 
permitted the same, if he has had actual notice from the board of 
health of the existence thereof. 
If the owner or occupant neglects to remove the nuisance, the board are 
then at liberty to enter upon the private property where it exists, and take 
such measures as they may see fit for its removal. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 444. 
If the order served upon the party prescribes a certain mode of remedy- 
ing the existing nuisance, the party is not bound to adopt that mode of 
remedying the evil, if another mode could be made to answer the end 
sought; nor is the board restricted to that mode, if they are obliged to take 
action. They are not only at liberty, but it is their duty, to exercise their 
best discretion at the time. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 445. 
The importance of the duty imposed upon boards of health, the necessity 
of prompt and decisive measures to protect the public health, require a wide 
discretion in the use of means by which to " destroy, remove, or prevent" 
such cause of sickness. If it be necessary to the proper performance of 
their duty, they may undoubtedly, in the exercise of their discretion, resort 
to means and measures which affect injuriously other lands than those upon 
which the manifestation of the cause of sickness is found. 
Thus, where a railroad company built their railroad originally on piles 
across a body of water, not interfering with the free circulation of the water, 
but afterwards from time to time filled in with earth the structure, so as to 
finally make it solid, without providing sufficient culverts or other means of 
drainage, and thereby divided and confined the waters, and rendered them 
stagnant and noisome, a source of filth, and injurious to the public health, 
after notice to the company and their refusal to act, it was held that the 
board were justified in entering upon the land of the railroad company, and 
Owner not com- 
plying, board to 
remove nuisance 
at his expense. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 23. 12 
in digging a trench there, for the purpose of removing or preventing the 
nuisance existing upon the neighboring land. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 446. 
It is not to be inferred from the fact that the preliminary order is required 
to be served only upon the owner or occupant of the land upon which the 
nuisance is found, that the subsequent proceedings for recovery of the ex- 
penses of removal are limited to such owner or occupant. By the express 
terms of the statute, they may be claimed of any "other person who caused 
or permitted" the nuisance. 
As to such other person, it is only requisite that he has had actual notice 
from the board of the existence thereof. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Company, 98 Mass. 445. 
An action to recover expenses incurred in the removal of a nuisance 
should be brought in the name of the city or town, and not in the names of 
the members of the board. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Co., 98 Mass. 442. 
Winthrop v. Farrar, 11 Allen, 398. 
In a suit to recover expenses incurred in removing a nuisance, when 
prosecuted against a party on the ground that he "caused the same," but 
who was not heard, and had no opportunity to be heard, such party is not 
concluded by the findings or adjudications of the board, and may contest 
all the facts upon which his liability is sought to be established. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Co., 98 Mass. 447. 
In a suit to recover expenses incurred in removing a nuisance, when 
prosecuted against a party on the ground that he " caused the same," the 
record of proceedings of the board are prima facie evidence of the existence 
of a nuisance which warranted the board in taking action and incurring 
expense for its removal ; but it is not evidence that the nuisance was caused 
by the defendant, and all the facts upon which it is sought to charge the 
defendant with liability are open to be tried and determined by the proofs in 
the case. 
City of Salem v. Eastern Railroad Co., 9S Mass. 451. 
25. The board, when satisfied upon due examination that a 
cellar, room, tenement, or building, in its town, occupied as a 
dwelling-place, has become, by reason of the number of occu- 
pants, want of cleanliness, or other cause, unfit for such purpose, 
and a cause of nuisance or sickness to the occupants or the public, 
may issue a notice in writing to such occupants, or any of them, 
requiring the premises to be put into a proper condition as to 
cleanliness, or, if they see fit, requiring the occupants to quit the 
premises within such time as the board may deem reasonable. If 
the persons so notified, or any of them, neglect or refuse to comply 
with the terms of the notice, the board may cause the premises to 
be properly cleansed at the expense of the owners, or may remove 
the occupants forcibly and close up the premises, and the same 
shall not be again occupied as a dwelling-place without the con- 
sent in writing of the board. If the owner thereafter occupies or 
knowingly permits the same to be occupied without such permis- 
sion in writing, he shall forfeit not less than ten nor more than 
fifty dollars. 
Board may no- 
tify occupants 
of unfit dwell- 
ing-place to 
quit, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 24. 13 
26. When a person is convicted on an indictment for a common 
nuisance injurious to the public health, the court in its discretion 
may order it to be removed or destroyed at the expense of the 
defendant, under the direction of the board of health ; and the 
form of the warrant to the sheriff or other officer may be varied 
accordingly. 
27. The superior court, or a justice thereof in term time or vaca- 
tion, may, either before or pending a prosecution for a common 
nuisance affecting the public health, issue an injunction to stay or 
prevent the same until the matter is decided by a jury or other- 
wise ; may enforce such injunction according to the course of pro- 
ceedings in chancery ; and may dissolve the same when the court 
or one of the justices shall think proper. 
28. When the board thinks it necessary for the preservation of 
the lives or health of the inhabitants to enter any land, building, 
premises, or vessel within its town, for the purpose of examining 
into and destroying, removing, or preventing a nuisance, source 
of filth, or cause of sickness, and the board or any agent thereof 
sent for that purpose is refused such entry, any member of the 
board or such agent may make complaint under oath to any justice 
of any court of record or to two justices of the peace of the county, 
stating the facts of the case so far as he has knowledge thereof; 
and said justice or justices may thereupon issue a warrant, directed 
to the sheriff or any of his deputies, to such agent of the board, or 
to any constable of such town, commanding him to take sufficient 
aid, and at any reasonable time repair to the place where such 
nuisance, source of filth, or cause of sickness complained of may 
be, and to destroy, remove, or prevent the same, under the direc- 
tions of the board. 
WET, ROTTEN, AND SPONGY LANDS. 
29. Lands in a city or town which are wet, rotten, or spongy, 
or covered with stagnant water, so as to be offensive to persons 
residing in the vicinity thereof, or injurious to health, shall be 
deemed to be a nuisance, and the board of health or health officer 
of such city or town may, upon petition and hearing, abate such 
nuisance in the manner provided in the following sections. 
30. Any person claiming to be injuriously affected by such 
nuisance may, by petition describing the premises upon which it is 
alleged to exist, and setting out the nature of the nuisance com- 
plained of, apply to the board or health officer for its abatement; 
whereupon such board or health officer shall proceed to view the 
premises, and examine into the nature and cause of such nuisance. 
31. Upon such examination, the board or health officer, if of 
When a party is 
convicted of a 
nuisance, board 
may order it 
destroyed. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 25. 
Injunction may 
issue in cases of 
nuisance. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 26. 
Board may 
make compul- 
sory examina- 
tion of premises, 
when. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 27. 
Lands injurious 
to health, etc., 
deemed a 
nuisance. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 28. 
Persons injuri- 
ously affected, 
etc., may apply 
to board for 
abatement. 
Public Statutes 
C. 80, § 29. 14 
opinion that the prayer of the petition or any part thereof should 
be granted, shall appoint a time and place for a hearing, and 
before the time so appointed shall cause reasonable notice of the 
time and place to be given to the petitioners, the persons whose 
lands it may be necessary to enter upon to abate the nuisance, and 
any other persons who may be affected by the proceedings, and, 
except in those cities and towns in which the mayor and aidermen 
and selectmen constitute the board of health, to the mayor or the 
chairman of the selectmen, that they may be heard upon the neces- 
sity and mode of abating such nuisance, and the questions of 
damages, and of the assessment and apportionment of the expenses 
of the abatement. 
32. Such notice shall be in writing, and may be served, by any 
person competent to serve civil process, upon the mayor, or chair- 
man of the selectmen, the petitioners, the owner or occupant of 
any land upon which it may be necessary to enter, or which may 
be benefited by the abatement, or the authorized agent of such 
owner or occupant, or by leaving an attested copy' of such notice 
at the last and usual place of abode of such persons ; but if the 
lands are unoccupied, and the owner or agent is unknown, or out 
of the state, the notice to such owner may be served by posting an 
attested copy thereof upon the premises, or by advertising in one 
or more public newspapers in such manner and for such length of 
time as the board or health officer may direct. 
33. At the time and place appointed for the hearing, the board 
or health officer shall hear the parties, and after the hearing may 
cause such nuisance to be abated, according to its or his discre- 
tion ; and for that purpose may enter and make such excavations, 
embankments, and drains upon any lands, and under and across 
any streets and ways, as may be necessary for such abatement; 
and shall also determine in what manner and at whose expense the 
improvements made shall be kept in repair, and shall estimate and 
award the amount of damage sustained by and benefit accruing to 
any person by reason of such improvements, and what proportion 
of the expense of making and keeping the same in repair shall be 
borne by the city or town and by any person benefited thereby. 
The damages so awarded shall be paid by the city or town, and 
there shall be assessed to the several persons benefited by such 
improvements their proportionate part, to be ascertained as before 
provided, of the expense of making and keeping in repair such 
improvements, and the same shall be included in the next city or 
town taxes of such persons, and shall be a lien upon the real 
estate benefited thereby, and be collected in the same manner as 
other taxes upon real estate, and shall be liable to abatement as 
othei* taxes now are. 
Board to ap- 
point hearing, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 30. 
Form of notice, 
and how served. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 31. 
Board after 
hearing may 
abate nuisance. 
Manner of such 
abatement. 
Damages, and 
upon whom 
assessed. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 32. 15 
34. The board or health officer shall, within thirty days after 
the abatement of any nuisance in the manner hereinbefore pro- 
vided, make return to the city or town clerk of its or his doings in 
the premises, which return shall be by him recorded in the city or 
town records. 
35. If the board or health officer unreasonably refuses or neglects 
to proceed in the matter of such petition, the petitioner may apply 
by petition to the superior court or any justice thereof, who, upon 
a hearing and good cause shown, may appoint three commissioners, 
who shall proceed in the manner hereinbefore provided. 
36. Any person aggrieved by the decision of the board, health 
officer, or commissioners, in their estimate and award of damages, 
may make complaint to the county commissioners for the county 
at any time within one year after the return to the city or town 
clerk ; whereupon the same proceedings shall be had as in cases 
where persons or parties are aggrieved by the award of damages 
by selectmen for land taken for a town way. 
APPEAL TO COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 
37. Any person aggrieved by the neglect or refusal of the 
board of health in a city or town to pass all proper orders abating 
a nuisance or nuisances may appeal to the county commissioners, 
who may hear and determine the matter of such appeal, and exer- 
cise in such case all the powers which the board might exercise. 
38. The party so appealing shall, within twenty-four hours 
after such neglect or refusal, give written notice to the opposite 
party of his intention so to appeal, and within seven days shall 
present a petition to some one of the commissioners, setting forth 
the grievances complained of, and the action of the board of health 
thereon, and shall thereupon enter into such recognizance before 
the commissioners, in such sum, and with such surety or sureties, 
as they shall order. 
39. Each commissioner, when acting under the provisions of 
this chapter, shall tax three dollars per day for time, and five cents 
a mile for travel to and from the place of meeting, to be paid into 
the county treasury ; and such costs shall in the first instance be 
paid by the appellant, and the commissioners may award that such 
costs and any other costs of the proceeding shall be paid by either 
party, as in their judgment justice shall require. 
INFECTED PERSONS AND ARTICLES. 
40. The board of health of a town may grant permits for the 
removal of any nuisance, infected articles, or sick person, within 
the limits of its town, when it thinks it safe and proper so to do. 
Board to make 
return of doings 
to town clerk. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 33. 
If board unrea- 
sonably refuses 
to act, superior 
court may 
appoint com- 
missioners. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 34. 
Person ag- 
grieved in 
award of dam- 
ages may apply 
for jury. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 35. 
by refusal of 
board to abate 
a nuisance may 
appeal to county 
commissioners. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 36. 
Party appealing 
to give notice, 
etc. Other 
proceedings. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, J 37. 
Costs and ex- 
penses, how 
paid. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 38. 
Board may per- 
mit'removal of 
i nfected articles, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
«. 80, § 39. 16 
Board to make 
provision for 
persons infected. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 40. 
41. When a person coming from abroad or residing in a town 
in this state is infected, or lately has been infected, with the plague 
or other sickness dangerous to the public health, except as is other- 
wise provided in this chapter, the board shall make effectual pro- 
vision in the manner which it judges best for the safety of the 
inhabitants by removing such person to a separate house or other- 
wise, and by providing nurses and other assistance and necessaries, 
which shall 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; or, if he is not an inhabitant of any town, at the charge 
of the commonwealth. 
Notice should be given to the town to which the infected person belongs, 
before commencing an action to recover the expenses incurred by furnishing 
him with assistance and necessaries. 
Inhabitants of Springfield v. Inhabitants of Worcester, 2 Cush. 52. 
The following notice sent by the selectmen of Springfield to the selectmen 
of Worcester was held to be sufficient: - 
Springfield, May 25,1846. 
Gentlemen,-James E. Belden, a colored man, came here, not far from 
the 1st of this month, diseased with the small-pox. The expenses of his sick- 
ness have been borne by this town, the man himself having no means of pay- 
ing them. According to the information we have, the town of Worcester is 
liable for these expenses. We have therefore thought it our duty (although 
not legally obliged so to do) to notify you of the case, that you may take such 
measures in regard to it as you may deem proper. We are told Henry W. 
Miller, of your place, is well acquainted with Belden. 
The physicians who have had charge of the case state that their patient 
will probably recover. His disease has been the worst form of small-pox. 
In behalf of the selectmen of Springfield, 
HENRY MORRIS, Chairman. 
To the Selectmen of Worcester. 
Inhabitants of Springfield v. Inhabitants of Worcester, 2 Cush. 52. 
42. If the infected person cannot be removed without danger to 
his health, the board shall make provision for him, as directed in 
the preceding section, in the house in which he may be ; and may 
cause the persons in the neighborhood to be removed, and take 
such other measures as it judges necessary for the safety of the 
inhabitants. 
48. The board of health of a town near to or bordering upon 
either of the neighboring states may appoint, by writing, suitable 
persons to attend at places by which travellers may pass from 
infected places in other states ; who may examine such travellers 
as it suspects of bringing any infection dangerous to the public 
health, and if need be may restrain them from travelling until 
licensed thereto by the board of health of the town to which they 
may come. A traveller coming from such infected place, who 
without such license travels within this state, (except to return 
by the most direct way to the state whence he came,) after he has 
If infected per- 
son cannot be 
removed, others 
may be. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 41. 
Persons may be 
stationed in 
places bordering 
on other states 
to examine, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 42. 17 
been cautioned to depart -by the persons so appointed, shall for- 
feit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. 
44. Two justices of the peace may, if need be, make out a war- 
rant directed to the sheriff of the county or his deputy, or to any 
constable, requiring them under the direction of the board to re- 
move any person infected with contagious sickness, or to impress 
and take up convenient houses, lodging, nurses, attendants, and 
other necessaries, for the accommodation, safety, and relief of the 
sick. 
45. When, upon the application of the board, it appears to a 
justice of the peace that there is just cause to suspect that baggage, 
clothing, or goods, found within the town, are infected with the 
plague or other disease dangerous to the public health, he shall, 
by warrant directed to the sheriff or his deputy, or to any constable, 
require him to impress so many men as said justice may judge 
necessary to secure such baggage, clothing, or goods, and to post 
said men as a guard over the house or place where such articles 
are lodged ; who shall take effectual care to prevent persons from 
removing or coming near the same until due inquiry is made into 
the circumstances. 
46. The justice may by the same warrant, if it appears to him 
necessary, require the officers, under the direction of the board, 
to impress and take up convenient houses or stores for the safe 
keeping of such articles ; and the board may cause them to be 
removed thereto, or otherwise detained, until, in the opinion of 
the board, they are freed from infection. 
47. The officers, in the execution of the warrant, shall, if need 
be, break open any house, shop, or other place, mentioned in the 
warrant, where such articles are ; and may require such aid as is 
necessary to effect the execution of the warrant. Whoever neglects 
or refuses to assist in the execution of the warrant, after being 
commanded to assist by either of said officers, shall forfeit a sum 
not exceeding ten dollars. 
48. The charges of securing such articles, and transporting and 
purifying the same, shall be paid by the owners, at such rates and 
prices as may be determined by the board. 
49. When a sheriff or other officer impresses or takes up any 
houses, stores, lodging, or other necessaries, or impresses men, as 
provided in this chapter, the several parties interested shall be en- 
titled to a just compensation therefor, to be paid by the town in 
which such persons or property are so impressed. 
50. When a person confined in a common jail, house of correc- 
tion, or workhouse, has a disease which, in the opinion of the phy- 
sician of the board or of such other physician as it may consult, 
Two justices 
may issue war- 
rant to remove 
sick persons, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 43. 
One justice may 
issue warrant to 
secure infected 
articles, etc. 
Sheriff may 
impress aid. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 44. 
may take 
houses and 
stores for safe 
keeping of 
goods, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 45. 
Officers may 
break open 
houses, shops, 
etc., and com- 
mand aid. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 46. 
Expenses to be 
paid by owners 
of goods. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 47. 
Town to make 
compensation 
for houses, etc. 
or services 
impressed. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 48. 
Removal of 
prisoners 
attacked with 
disease. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 40. 18 
is dangerous to the safety and health of other prisoners or of the 
inhabitants of the town, the board shall by its order in writing 
direct the removal of such person to some hospital or other place 
of safety, there to be provided for and securely kept so as to pre- 
vent his escape until its further order. If such person recovers 
from the disease, he shall be returned to said prison or other place 
of confinement. 
51. If the person so removed is committed by order of court or 
under judicial process, the order for his removal, or a copy thereof 
attested by the presiding member of the board, shall be returned 
by him, with the doings thereon, into the office of the clerk of the 
court from which the process of commitment was issued. No pris- 
oner so removed shall thereby commit an escape. 
VACCINATION. 
52. Parents and guardians shall cause their children and wards 
to be vaccinated before they attain the age of two years, and 
revaccinated when the selectmen or mayor and aidermen shall after 
five years from the last vaccination require it. For every year's 
neglect the party offending shall forfeit five dollars. 
53. The selectmen and mayor and aidermen shall require and 
enforce the vaccination of all the inhabitants, and, when in their 
opinion the public health requires it, the revaccination of all the 
inhabitants who do not prove to their satisfaction that they have 
been successfully vaccinated or revaccinated within five years. 
Every person over twenty-one years of age, not under guardianship, 
who neglects to comply with any such requirement, shall forfeit 
five dollars. 
54. Towns shall furnish the means of vaccination to such of 
their inhabitants as are unable to pay for the same. 
55. Incorporated manufacturing companies, superintendents of 
almshouses, state reform schools, industrial schools, lunatic hospi- 
tals, and other places where the poor and sick are received, mas- 
ters of houses of correction, jailers, keepers of prisons, warden of 
the state prison, and superintendents or officers of all other insti- 
tutions supported or aided by the state, shall at the expense of 
their respective establishments or institutions cause all inmates 
thereof to be vaccinated immediately upon their entrance thereto, 
unless they produce sufficient evidence of previous successful vac- 
cination within five years. 
56. Each town may make further provision for the vaccination 
of its inhabitants, under the direction of the board of health or a 
committee chosen for the purpose. 
Return of re- 
moval to be 
made to court. 
Such removal 
not an escape. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 50. 
Parents, etc., to 
cause children 
to be vaccinated. 
Penalty for 
neglect. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 51. 
Selectmen, etc., 
to enforce vac- 
cination. Pen- 
alty for neglect. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 52. 
Towns to pro- 
vide means. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 53. 
Inmates of 
factories, etc., 
to be vaccinated. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 54. 
Towns may 
make further 
provision for 
vaccination. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 55. 19 
LYING-IN HOSPITALS. 
57. The selectmen of a town may license any person to estab- 
lish or keep therein a lying-in hospital, hospital ward, or other- 
place for the reception, care, and treatment of women in labor, if 
the board of health shall first certify to the selectmen that the 
person applying for such license is in its judgment a suitable 
person, and that from its inspection and examination of such 
hospital, hospital ward, or other place aforesaid, the same is suita- 
able, and properly arranged and provided for such business. 
58. Such license shall continue in force for two years, subject, 
however, to revocation by the selectmen. 
59. Every such hospital, hospital ward, or other place shall be 
subject to visitation and inspection at any time by the board of 
health, the chief of police, and the selectmen ; and if it receives in a 
year more than six women as patients in labor, it shall also be sub- 
ject to like visitation and inspection by the state board of health, 
lunacy, and charity. 
60. Whoever establishes or keeps or is concerned in establish- 
ing or keeping a hospital, hospital ward, or other place for the 
purpose mentioned in section fifty-six, or is engaged in any such 
business, without such license, shall for the first offence be pun- 
ished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, one-half of which 
shall be paid to the complainant, and the other half to the town ; 
and for any subsequent offence by imprisonment in the jail or house 
of correction not exceeding two years. 
PROTECTION OF INFANTS. 
61. Whoever engages in the business of taking nursing infants 
or infants under three years of age to board, or of entertaining or 
boarding more than two such infants in the same house at the same 
time, shall, within two days after the reception of every such 
infant beyond the first two, give written notice to the board of 
health of the city or town where such infant is so to be entertained 
or boarded, specifying the name and age of the child and the name 
and place of residence of the party so undertaking its care ; and 
such board may enter and inspect said house and premises while 
said business is carried on, and direct and enforce such sanitary 
measures respecting such children and premises as it may deem 
proper. 
62. Whoever violates any of the provisions of the preceding 
section, or refuses admission to such board for said purpose, shall 
be punished by fine of not less than fifty nor more than five hun- 
dred dollars. 
Selectmen may 
license lying-in 
hospitals, on 
certificate, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 56. 
Licenses to be 
for two years, 
but revocable. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 57. 
Hospitals sub- 
ject to visita- 
tion, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 58. 
Penalties for 
keeping hospita 
without license 
Public Statutes 
c. 80, § 59. 
Persons taking 
infants to nurse 
or board to give 
notice to board 
of health. 
Power of the 
hoard. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 60. 
Penalties. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 61. 20 
QUARANTINE. 
Towns may 
establish a 
quarantine 
ground. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 62. 
63. A town may establish a quarantine ground in a suitable 
place either within or without its own limits ; but if such place is 
without its limits, the assent of the town within whose limits it 
may be established shall be first obtained. 
64. Two or more towns may at their joint expense establish a 
quarantine ground for their common use in a suitable place either 
within or without their own limits ; but if such place is without 
their limits, they shall first obtain the assent of the town within 
whose limits it may be. 
65. The board of health in each seaport town may from time to 
time establish the quarantine to be performed by vessels arriving 
within its harbor, and may make such quarantine regulations as it 
judges necessary for the health and safety of the inhabitants. 
66. Such regulations shall extend to all persons, goods, and 
effects arriving in such vessels, and to all persons who may visit 
or go on board of the same. 
67. Whoever violates any such regulation after notice thereof 
has been given in the manner before provided in this chapter shall 
forfeit not less than five nor more than five hundred dollars. 
68. The board in each seaport town may at any time cause a 
vessel arriving in such port, when such vessel or the cargo thereof 
is in its opinion foul or infected so as to endanger the public health, 
to be removed to the quarantine ground and thoroughly purified at 
the expense of the owners, consignees, or persons in possession of 
the same ; and may cause all persons arriving in or going on board 
of such vessel, or handling the cargo, to be removed to any hospi- 
tal under the care of the board, there to remain under their orders. 
69. A master, seaman, or passenger, belonging to a vessel on 
board of which any infection then is or has lately been, or is sus- 
pected to have been, or which has been at or has come from a port 
where an infectious distemper prevails that may endanger the pub- 
lic health, who refuses to make answer on oath to such questions 
as may be asked him relating to such infection or distemper by the 
board of health of the town to which such vessel may come, (which 
oath any member of the board may administer,) shall forfeit a sum 
not exceeding two hundred dollars ; and if not able to pay said 
sum, he shall suffer six months' imprisonment. 
70. All expenses incurred on account of any person, vessel, or 
goods, under quarantine regulations, shall be paid by such person 
or the owner of such vessel or goods respectively. 
The owner of a vessel under quarantine regulations is not liable for the 
expenses of a seaman at a hospital, to which he had been transferred by 
order of the board of health of a town, and which was under their care. 
Inhabitants of Provincetown v. Smith, 120 Mass. 96. 
Two or more 
towns may 
establish a 
common 
quarantine 
ground. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 63. 
Board of health 
may establish 
the quarantine 
of vessels. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 64. 
Quarantine 
regulations to 
extend to all 
persons, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 65. 
Penalty for 
violation after 
public notice. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 66. 
Vessels sus- 
pected of in- 
fection to be 
ordered to 
quarantine 
ground. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 67. 
Penalty if mas- 
ter, seaman, 
etc., refuse to 
answer on oath. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 68. 
Quarantine 
expenses to be 
paid by person 
or owner. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 69. 21 
HOSPITALS AND DANGEROUS DISEASES. 
71. Any town may establish within its limits, and be constantly 
provided with, one or more hospitals for the reception of persons 
having a disease dangerous to the public health. 
72. Such hospitals shall be subject to the orders and regulations 
of the board, or of a committee of the town appointed for that 
purpose. 
73. No such hospital shall be established within one hundred 
rods of an inhabited dwelling-house situated in an adjoining town, 
without the consent of such town. 
74. Whoever occupies or uses a building for a hospital in a part 
of a city or town prohibited by the mayor and aidermen or select- 
men shall forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars for every month 
he so occupies or uses such building, and in like proportion for a 
portion of a month ; and the supreme judicial court in term time 
or vacation may issue an injunction to prevent such occupancy 
or use. 
75. When a hospital is established, as provided in section 
seventy, the physician, nurses, attendants, the persons sick there- 
in, and all persons approaching or coming within the limits thereof, 
and all furniture and other articles used or brought there, shall 
be subject to such regulations as may be made by the board of 
health or the committee appointed for that purpose. 
76. When a disease dangerous to the public health breaks out in 
a town, the board shall immediately provide such hospital or place 
of reception for the sick and infected as is judged best for their 
accommodation and the safety of the inhabitants, which shall be 
subject to the regulations of the board; and the board may cause 
any sick and infected person to be removed thereto, unless his 
condition will not admit of his removal without danger to his 
health, in which case the house or place where he remains shall be 
considered as a hospital, and all persons residing in or in any way 
concerned within the same shall be subject to the regulations of the 
board as before provided. 
77. When such disease is found to exist in a town, the select- 
men and board of health shall use all possible care to prevent the 
spreading of the infection, and to give public notice of infected 
places to travellers, by displaying red flags at proper distances, 
and by all other means which in their judgment shall be most 
effectual for the common safety. And whoever obstructs the select- 
men, board of health, or its agent, in using such means to prevent 
the spreading of the infection, or wilfully removes, obliterates, 
defaces, or handles the red flags or other signals so displayed, shall 
Hospitals may 
be provided by 
towns. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 70. 
to be under 
orders of board 
of health. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 71. 
not to be near 
dwelling-house, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 72. 
not to be 
occupied with- 
out authority. 
Injunction. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 73. 
Physicians, etc., 
in hospitals, 
subject to board 
of health. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 74. 
If dangerous 
disease breaks 
out, board to 
provide hos- 
pital, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 75. 
Selectmen to 
give notice of 
infected places 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 76. 22 
forfeit for each offence not less than ten nor more than one hun- 
dred dollars. 
78. If a physician or other person in any of the hospitals or 
places of reception before mentioned, or who attends, approaches, 
or is concerned with the same, violates any regulation lawfully 
made in relation thereto, either with respect to himself or his or 
any other person's property, he shall for each offence forfeit not 
less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars. 
79. When a householder knows that a person within his family 
is sick of small-pox or any other disease dangerous to the public 
health, he shall immediately give notice thereof to the selectmen 
or board of health of the town in which he dwells. If he refuses 
or neglects to give such notice, he shall forfeit a sum not exceed- 
ing one hundred dollars. 
80. When a physician knows that a person whom he is called to 
visit is infected with small-pox or any other disease dangerous to 
the public health, he shall immediately give notice thereof to the 
selectmen or board of health of the town ; and if he refuses or 
neglects to give such notice, he shall forfeit for each offence not 
less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars. 
81. Expenses incurred by a town in the removal of nuisances or 
for the preservation of the public health, which are recoverable of 
a private person or corporation, may be sued for and recovered in 
an action of contract. 
82. Fines and forfeitures incurred under general laws, the special 
laws applicable to a town, or the by-laws and regulations of a 
town, relating to health, shall inure to the use of such town. 
Under statute 1849, chap. 211, sect. 7, which provides that all fines and 
forfeitures, incurred under the general law or the special laws applicable to 
any town or city, or the ordinances, by-laws, and regulations of any town or 
city, relating to health, shall inure to the use of such town or city, and may 
be recovered by complaint in the name of the treasurer, it was held that 
such fines and forfeitures were recoverable only by complaint in the name of 
the treasurer of the city or town, and in no other way. 
Commonwealth v. Fahey, 5 Cush. 408. 
Under sect. 26, chap. 28 of the Public Statutes, the city marshal or other 
police officer, or the city treasurer, may prosecute for all fines and forfeitures 
which may inure to the city. 
The ordinances and by-laws of the city of Boston relating to burying- 
grounds and the burial of the dead were held to be regulations relating to 
health within the meaning of the above statute. 
Commonwealth v. Fahey, 5 Cush. 411. 
83. The provisions of sections forty, forty-one, seventy-five, 
seventy-six, and seventy-seven, of chapter eighty, Public Statutes, 
so far as they confer authority for the removal of patients from their 
Penalty on per- 
sons in hospitals 
for violating 
regulations. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 77. 
Householders 
to give notice 
of dangerous 
diseases. 
Penalty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 78. 
Penalty on 
physician for 
not giving 
notice, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 79. 
Expenses re- 
coverable of 
individuals, 
how sued for. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 80. 
Fines and for- 
feitures to inure 
to use of towns. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 81. 
Certain pro- 
visions not to 
apply to small- 
pox. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 82. 23 
homes, except in cases of persons residing in boarding-houses, 
hotels, or where two or more families occupy the same dwelling, 
and other cases, where in the opinion of the board and the at- 
tending physician the case cannot be properly isolated, shall not 
apply to small-pox. 
84. All reasonable expenses which have been heretofore or may 
hereafter be incurred by the board of health of a city or town, in 
making the provision required by law for a person infected with 
the small-pox or other disease dangerous to the public health, shall 
be paid by the person himself, his parents, or master, if able ; 
otherwise by the town in which he has a legal settlement; and if 
he has no settlement, by the commonwealth, in which case the 
bills therefor shall be approved by the state board of health, lunacy, 
and charity. 
OFFENSIVE TRADES. 
85. The board of health of a town shall from time to time assign 
certain places for the exercise of any trade or employment which 
is a nuisance or hurtful to the inhabitants, or dangerous to the 
public health, or the exercise of which is attended by noisome and 
injurious odors, or is otherwise injurious to their estates, and may 
prohibit the exercise of such trade or employment in places not so 
assigned; the board may also forbid such exercise within the 
limits of the town or in any particular locality thereof. All such 
assignments shall be entered in the records of the town, and may 
be revoked when the board shall think proper. 
So far as this section extends, the rules and course of proceeding under 
the common law are superseded, but in all other respects it continues in 
force as before. If the board of health acts and assigns places in which any 
particular trade or employment may be carried on, such an assignment would 
undoubtedly legalize the occupation of any person conducting his business 
in that place, and he would then be liable to no process, suit, or prosecution, 
other than those which are specially appointed and prescribed. But if no 
such assignment has been made, and the board, in the exercise of their dis- 
cretion, have not seen fit to act at all, a remedy for injuries to the public or 
for violation of private rights by the permanent maintenance of offensive 
trades and employments must be found in the rules and principles of the 
common law. The statute, by leaving that body to act according to the dis- 
cretion of its members, has imposed no duty upon them which they are 
imperatively bound to perform, and no means have been provided by a 
recourse to which, as by a complaint made to them, they can be compelled 
to exercise the power with which they are intrusted. 
Commonwealth v. Rumford Chemical Works, 16 Gray, 231. 
The board may pass an order prohibiting the exercise of an offensive 
trade, without having given previous notice to parties interested. 
Belcher v. Farrar, 8 Allen, 327. 
In the above case, Bigelow, C. J., says, "If, as preliminary to the exer- 
cise of any jurisdiction over the subject-matter, the selectmen were required 
Expenses, how 
to be paid. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 83. 
Board to assign 
places for exer- 
cising offensive 
trades; and 
may prohibit 
them. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 84. 24 
to give notice to all persons exercising offensive trades or employments 
within the limits of the town, of their intention to prohibit the continuance 
of them, it would follow necessarily that such persons would have a right to 
appear and object, and ask for a hearing and trial on the question whether 
the use of their property was hateful or noxious, so as to fall within any of 
the classes contemplated by the statute. This would often lead to protracted 
examinations, which might occupy days or weeks. If, in the mean time, the 
alleged offensive and noisome trades might be carried on, great injury to 
health might be occasioned ; and it would be impossible to prevent the evils 
which it was the manifest object of the statute promptly to suppress." 
It is questionable whether the prohibition of offensive trades is a proper 
subject of a by-law or ordinance, because that matter is specially provided 
for by statute; and to prohibit their exercise in any particular locality in a 
town or city by by-law or ordinance would interfere with the right of appeal 
to a jury which the statute secures. 
Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 223. 
The keeping of swine cannot be considered a trade within the meaning of 
the law, and would be a proper subject of a by-law or ordinance. 
Commonwealth v. Patch, 97 Mass. 223. 
An order of the board under this section is not in the nature of an adjudi- 
cation of a particular case, but of a general regidation of the trade or employ- 
ment mentioned therein. It is not to be construed with technical strictness, 
but with the same liberality as all votes and proceedings of municipal bodies 
or officers who are not presumed to be versed in the forms of law; and every 
reasonable presumption is to be made in its favor. It need not state in 
direct terms that the trade which it prohibits is a nuisance. It is sufficient 
if the order clearly shows, that, in the opinion of the board, the exercise of 
such trade will be hurtful to the inhabitants, or injurious to the public 
health, or be attended by noisome and injurious odors. 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 261. 
The following order of a board of health was held to be a valid exercise of 
the power conferred upon boards of health: - 
" Ordered, that the exercise of the trade or employment of preparing tripe, 
manufacturing neat's-foot oil, tallow and glue stock, and the boiling and try- 
ing of bones, hoofs, heads, refuse, and partially decayed animal matter, and 
as a part of such trade or employment, the storing about the premises where 
such business is carried on, of putrid meats, bones, heads, legs, and the vari- 
ous other materials from which offensive smells emanate, which are used in 
such trade or employment, be and the same hereby is forbidden within the 
limits of the city of Taunton." 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 261. 
A board of health may regulate as well as prohibit the exercise of offen- 
sive trades. 
Sawyer v. State Board of Health, 125 Mass. 195. 
The same power by this section is given to the boards of health of towns 
and cities as is given by sect. 93, chap. 80, Public Statutes, to the state board 
of health, lunacy, and charity. The only difference is this: that by sect. 93 
the state board is bound to give notice to a party, and allow him a hearing 
before it can pass an order of prohibition; but under this section the local 
boards may pass an order of prohibition without any previous notice. 
Sawyer v. State Board of Health, 125 Mass. 191. 
86. When it appears on a trial before the superior court for the 
county, upon a complaint made by any person, that a place or 
Superior court 
on complaint 
may revoke 25 
building so assigned has become a nuisance, by reason of offensive 
smells or exhalations proceeding from the same, or is otherwise 
hurtful or dangerous to the neighborhood or to travellers, the 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 nuisance to be removed or 
prevented. 
87. A person injured either in his comfort or the enjoyment of 
his estate by such nuisance may have an action of tort for the 
damage sustained thereby. 
88. Orders of prohibition shall be served upon the occupant or 
person having charge of the premises where such trade or employ- 
ment is exercised. If the party upon whom such order is served 
for twenty-four hours after such service refuses or neglects to obey 
the same, the board shall take all necessary measures to prevent 
such exercise ; and the person so refusing or neglecting shall for- 
feit not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars. 
A notice ordered by the board and duly received is sufficiently served. It 
need not necessarily be served by a constable or other officer. 
Winthrop v. Farrar, 11 Allen, 398. 
The supreme judicial court has authority under its general jurisdiction as 
a court of equity to restrain by injunction the carrying on of an offensive 
trade which has been prohibited by a board of health. But the board must 
act in good faith towards the parties interested, and if by their action they 
have misled them and put them in a position to prevent their availing them- 
selves of their right to appeal, and by reason thereof they have lost their 
opportunity to appeal, the court will refuse to enforce the orders of the 
board by a process in equity. 
Winthrop v. Farrar, 11 Allen, 402. 
A bill in equity to restrain a party from exercising an offensive trade or 
employment prohibited by the board of health of a city is properly brought 
in the name of the city and properly signed by the mayor. 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 262. 
89. Any person aggrieved by an order may appeal therefrom, 
and shall within three days from the service thereof upon him 
apply to the superior court, if in session in the county where such 
order is made, or in vacation to a justice of said court, for a jury ; 
and such court or justice shall issue a warrant for a jury, to be 
impanelled at a time and place expressed in the warrant, in the 
manner provided in regard to the laying out of highways. If a 
person by mistake of law or fact or by accident fails to appeal 
from any such order, and to apply to the superior court or a justice 
thereof for a jury within said three days, and if he makes it appear 
to the court or justice that such failure was caused by mistake or 
accident, he may at any time within thirty days from the service 
of the order upon him appeal therefrom and apply for a jury with 
the same effect as if done within the said three days. 
such assign- 
ment. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 85. 
Action for dam- 
ages from 
nuisance. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 86. 
Orders of pro- 
hibition, etc., to 
be served on 
occupant. If 
he refuses to 
obey, board 
may prevent. 
Penalty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, §87. ' 
Appeal by per- 
son aggrieved. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 88. 26 
Trade not to be 
exercised mean- 
while. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 89. 
90. During the pendency of the appeal such trade or employ- 
ment shall not be exercised contrary to the order; and upon any 
violation of the order the appeal shall forthwith be dismissed. 
The statute giving to boards of health the power to forbid the exercise, 
within the limits of a town or city, or in any particular locality thereof, of 
any trade or employment which is a nuisance or hurtful to the inhabitants 
or dangerous to the public health, or the exercise of which is attended by 
noisome and injurious odors or is otherwise injurious to their estates, and 
providing for an appeal, and that during the pendency of the appeal such 
trade or employment shall not be exercised contrary to the order, is within 
the authority of the legislature and constitutional. 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 260. 
In Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 260, Gray, C. J., says, " To allow the 
offensive trade to be carried on until it had been decided by a jury to be a 
nuisance, and the questions of law arising upon such a trial had been deter- 
mined by the court, would defeat the purpose of the statute. It is a case in 
which private rights must be held subordinate to the public welfare, and 
falls within the strictest interpretation of the maxim, Salus populi suprema 
lex. 
" The rights of any person to be affected by the order of prohibition are 
reasonably secured by requiring the order to be served upon him or the per- 
son in charge of his business, and by allowing him an appeal to a jury to be 
impanelled immediately without waiting for a regular term of court, and by 
whose verdict the order may be altered, annulled, or affirmed." 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 260. 
91. The verdict of the jury, which may either alter the order, or 
affirm or annul it in full, shall be returned to the court for accept- 
ance as in case of highways ; and said verdict when accepted shall 
have the authority and effect of an original order from which no 
appeal had been taken. 
The following order was issued by the state board of health: - 
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
State Board of Health, Boston, April 5, 1876 
To George A. Sawyer of the town of Watertown, in the County of Middlesex. 
You are hereby notified, that at a meeting of the state board of health, held 
at Boston, in the county of Suffolk, on the third day of April, 1876, it was 
ordered, on the petition of W. H. Ingraham and four others, and after a hear- 
ing of the parties, that George A. Sawyer of Watertown be, and he hereby is, 
directed to discontinue the business of slaughtering and rendering on the 
premises now occupied by him, on and after the fifteenth day of May, 1876. 
And it is adjudged and determined by this board, that the premises are nox- 
ious and offensive, and that the public health and the public comfort and 
convenience require that the said George A. Sawyer be ordered, as aforesaid, 
to cease and desist from carrying on the said business on the said premises, on 
and after the fifteenth day of May, 1876. And you are hereby directed to 
comply in all respects with the requirements of the said order, under penalty 
of what may follow thereon. 
An appeal was taken to a jury of the superior court. The case was then 
tried in the superior court, and the jury returned the following verdict and 
special findings: - 
Verdict of jury 
may alter, etc., 
order; to be 
returned for 
acceptance. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 90. 27 
" The jury alter the order of the state board of health, dated April 5, 1876, 
as follows: That Mr. George A. Sawyer shall be permitted to continue the 
business of slaughtering animals on the premises now occupied by him in the 
town of Watertown, under the restrictions as per appended sheet. 
" 1. Mr. George A. Sawyer shall be required to concrete the cellar under his 
slaughter-house, in concave form. 
"2. Mr. Sawyer shall not keep swine in or under his slaughter-house. 
" 3. All offal and offensive matter shall be removed from the above premises 
before ten o'clock p.m. of the day of killing, in covered, water-tight boxes or 
tanks. 
"4. Said premises shall be kept at all times in a condition of neatness and 
cleanliness acceptable to the local board of health." 
Held, that the several findings of the jury were sufficiently clear, precise, 
and definite in matters of form, and were proper in substance. 
Sawyer v. State Board of Health, 125 Mass. 196. 
Where an appeal is taken and trial had before a sheriff's jury, if the 
defendant is dissatisfied with the verdict, his remedy is, by application to 
the superior court, to set it aside, and, if aggrieved by any ruling of that 
court in matter of law, by bringing the question before the supreme court 
on exceptions or appeal. 
Taunton v. Taylor, 116 Mass. 262. 
92. If the order is affirmed by the verdict, the town shall recover 
costs against the appellant; if it is annulled, the appellant shall 
recover damages and costs against the town ; and if it is altered, 
the court may fender such judgment as to costs as in its discretion 
may seem just. 
93. Whoever occupies or uses a building for carrying on therein 
the business of slaughtering cattle, sheep, or other animals, or for 
a melting or rendering establishment, or for other noxious or offen- 
sive trades and occupations, or permits or allows said trades or 
occupations to be carried on upon premises owned or occupied by 
him, without first obtaining the written consent and permission of 
the mayor and aidermen of the city or selectmen of the town in 
which the building or premises are situated, shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding two hundred dollars for every month he so occupies or 
uses such building or premises, and in like proportion for a longer 
or shorter time : provided, that this section shall not apply to any 
building or premises occupied or used for the trades or occupations 
before described on the eighth day of May in the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-one ; but no person occupying or using any 
building or premises on said date for the trades or occupations 
aforesaid shall enlarge or extend the same without first obtaining 
the written consent and permission of the mayor and aidermen or 
selectmen. 
The above section is constitutional and valid as a police regulation. 
Watertown v. Mayo, 109 Mass. 318. 
Where a person before the passage of the above statute used and occupied 
a building on his own land as a slaughter-house, and therein slaughtered 
Costs, how 
assessed, and to 
what amount. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 91. 
Slaughter- 
houses, etc., not 
to be used with- 
out leave. Pen- 
alty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 92. 28 
cattle, sheep, and other animals, as a business, and after the passage of the 
statute he continued the business of slaughtering in said building, when 
the same caught fire accidentally, and was consumed, and afterwards he 
immediately rebuilt said slaughter-house on the same site, and continued 
his business of slaughtering cattle, sheep, and other animals therein, and 
it further appeared that the new building was different from the old one in 
its construction and arrangement, but was not larger or more extensive in 
size or capacity, the court held that the right to continue, without license, 
the same business in the building, was not forfeited, and that the building 
was within the exception stated in the section. 
Watertown v. Sawyer, 109 Mass. 320. 
The manifest purpose of the legislature is to protect the business already 
established, in the place where it is carried on, not the identical building 
which happened to be standing for its use when the law was enacted. 
Watertown v. Sawyer, 109 Mass. 320. 
A person was the owner of land and buildings used for a long period for 
a melting and rendering establishment and for the manufacture of soap in 
Somerville, a city containing more than four thousand inhabitants. In this 
rendering business, he made use of two open kettles; but the building in 
which they we^e placed did not cover the entire lot of land. In the year 1872 
he tore down a part of his buildings, which were old and dilapidated, and, 
without consent or permission from the mayor and aidermen of Somerville, 
erected a new building, standing partly on land covered by the old buildings 
and partly on land that had not been so covered. The new building covered 
about one-third as much space as the old buildings, and was two stories 
high with a French roof, while the old buildings were, for the most part, 
only one story in height. The owner's purpose was to place in that part of 
the new building formerly covered by the old one a covered kettle or tank 
for melting and rendering purposes, and to use the residue of the building 
for storage and other purposes connected with his business, and to tear down 
and discontinue the use of the old buildings and of the two open kettles. 
The capacity of the proposed new tank for rendering purposes would not 
exceed, and might not equal, that of the two open kettles. The old build- 
ings were standing and in use, except so far as displaced by the new building. 
' Upon these facts the court held that it did not appear that the defendant 
had enlarged the premises occupied by him for the business in question, or 
that he had increased or purposed to increase the business, and refused to 
issue an injunction restraining him from so enlarging and extending them. 
Somerville v. O'Neil, 114 Mass. 353. 
94. When any building or premises are so occupied or used, the 
state board of health, lunacy, and charity shall, upon application 
made to it for that purpose, appoint a time and place for hearing 
the parties, and give due notice thereof to the party against whom 
the application is made, and after such notice and hearing may, if 
in its judgment the public health or the public comfort and con- 
venience so require, order any person to desist and cease from 
further carrying on said trades or occupations in such building or 
premises; and any person thereaftei' continuing so to occupy or 
use such building or premises shall forfeit a sum not exceeding two 
hundred dollars for every month of such occupancy and use, and 
in like proportion for a longer or shorter time. 
State board may 
prohibit offen- 
sive trades. 
Penalty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 93. 29 
Precisely the same power is given by sect. 84, chap. 80 of the Public 
Statutes, to the local boards of health, as by this section is given to the state 
board. The only difference is this, that the state board is bound to give 
notice to a party, and allow him a hearing, before it can pass an order of 
prohibition; but the local boards may pass an order of prohibition without 
any previous notice. 
Sawyer b. State Board of Health, 125 Mass. 191. 
The same right to appeal to a jury from an order of the state board 
exists, as is provided for an appeal from an order of a local board under 
sect. 84. 
Sawyer v. State Board of Health, 125 Mass. 191. 
95. The supreme judicial court in term time or vacation may 
issue an injunction to prevent the occupancy, use, enlargement, or 
extension of any building or premises occupied or used for the 
trades or occupations aforesaid, without the written consent and 
permission being first obtained ; and also in like manner to enforce 
the orders of the state board issued under the preceding section. 
A bill in equity to restrain by injunction a person from occupying and 
using a building for carrying on the business of slaughtering cattle, sheep, 
or other animals, 'without the written consent of the selectmen, is properly 
brought in the name of the inhabitants of the town. 
Inhabitants of Watertown v. Mayo, 109 Mass. 315. 
96. The three preceding sections shall not be so construed as to 
impair any other remedies which may exist in cases of nuisance. 
SWINE-SLAUGHTERING ASSOCIATIONS. 
97. Three or more persons who associate themselves together by 
such an agreement in writing as is described in section sixteen of 
chapter one hundred and six of the Public Statutes, with a capital 
of not less than one hundred thousand nor more than five hundred 
thousand dollars, with the intention of forming a corporation for 
the purpose of buying and slaughtering swine and of melting and 
rendering and pork-packing, upon complying with the provisions 
of section twenty-one of said chapter shall be and remain a corpo- 
ration, with all the powers, rights, and privileges, and subject to 
all the duties, limitations, and restrictions, contained in said chap- 
ter, except as hereinafter provided. 
98. Such corporation may take and hold by purchase or other- 
-wise such parcel of land, not exceeding one hundred acres in 
extent, and situated in such place, as the state board of health, 
lunacy, and charity may determine to be suitable for said business ; 
and shall, within sixty days from the time of taking any land 
otherwise than by purchase, cause to be signed by its president and 
filed in the registry of deeds for the county or district wherein 
said lands lie a description thereof as certain as is required in a 
common conveyance of lands and a statement of the purpose for 
Injunction to 
prevent offen- 
sive trades. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 94. 
Other remedies 
not impaired by 
preceding pro- 
visions. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80,§ 95. 
Corporations 
may be formed 
for buying and 
slaughtering 
swine, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 107, § 1. 
may take 
land, with 
approval of 
state board of 
health, etc.; to 
file a description 
in registry of 
deeds. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 107, § 2. 30 
which the lands are taken ; but no land shall be so taken without 
the approval in writing of the mayor and aidermen of the city or 
of the selectmen of the town in which it is situated. 
99. Such corporation shall be liable to pay all damages sustained 
by any persons in their property by the taking of any land for the 
purposes of this chapter. A person sustaining damages as afore- 
said, and not agreeing upon the sum to be paid therefor, may apply 
by petition for the assessment of his damages, at any time within 
one year from the taking of said land, to the superior court in 
the county in which said land is situate ; such petition may be filed 
in the clerk's office of said court in vacation or in term time, and 
the clerk shall thereupon issue a summons to the corporation, re- 
turnable, if issued in vacation, to the then next term of the said 
court, held fourteen days at least after the issuing of said summons, 
and, if in term time, returnable on such day as the court shall 
order, to appear and answer lo the said petition ; the said summons 
shall be served fourteen days at least before the return day thereof 
by leaving a copy thereof with the clerk of the corporation, and 
upon the return of said summons, duly served, the said petition 
shall stand as a cause in said court; and upon said petition all 
questions of fact relating to the damages sustained by the peti- 
tioner shall be heard and determined, and the amount of such 
damages shall be assessed by a jury, unless the parties in writing 
waive their right to a jury, and agree that the same shall be deter- 
mined by the court; and the verdict of said jury, being accepted 
and recorded by the court, or the award of the court if jury trial is 
waived, shall be final and conclusive, and judgment shall be ren- 
dered and execution issued thereon ; and costs shall be recovered 
by the petitioner if the amount of said judgment exceeds the 
amount offered him for his damage before the filing of said peti- 
tion, otherwise the corporation shall recover its costs. 
100. Such corporation shall proceed to build upon such land 
suitable buildings for the slaughtering of swine and for melting 
and rendering, and all necessary stables and out-buildings. No 
such building shall be erected until the plans thereof, with all 
details of construction, have been submitted to and approved by 
said state board, or some person designated by it to examine them. 
The corporation shall carry on all its business in accordance with 
such regulations as said state board shall, from time to time, estab- 
lish and furnish in writing to the clerk of the corporation ; and 
for each violation of said regulations, it shall forfeit not less than 
twenty nor more than five hundred dollars. 
101. Subject to the foregoing provisions, such corporation may 
manufacture and sell any of the usual products of said slaughter- 
Liability for 
damages. 
Trial by jury. 
Public Statutes, 
O. 107, § 3. 
To build suita- 
ble buildings; 
regulations by 
state board. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 107, § 4. 
Such corpora- 
tion may carry 
on slaughtering 
business. 31 
ing and melting and rendering business, or may lease or permit 
other persons to use their buildings or parts thereof, on such terms 
as may be agreed upon. Each member of the corporation may 
slaughter swine on said premises, subject to such regulations and 
tariff of prices as the corporation may by vote at any regular 
meeting establish, and to the regulations of the said state board. 
A person engaged in business on the premises of such corporation, 
who violates any regulation of said state board, shall forfeit not 
less than twenty nor more than five hundred dollars. 
INSPECTION AND SALE OF PROVISIONS AND ANIMALS INTENDED FOR 
SLAUGHTER. 
102. The mayor and aidermen of cities and the selectmen of 
towns may annually appoint one or more persons to be inspectors 
of provisions and of animals intended for slaughter. Such inspect- 
ors shall be sworn faithfully to discharge the duties of their office, 
and shall receive such compensation as the city council or the 
selectmen shall determine. 
103. Said inspectors may inspect all animals intended for 
slaughter, and all meats, fish, vegetables, produce, fruits, and 
provisions of all kinds, found in said cities or towns or exposed 
for sale or kept with intent to sell therein ; and may for this pur- 
pose enter into all buildings or enclosures where said animals, 
meats, fish, vegetables, produce, fruits, or provisions are kept, 
stored, or exposed for slaughter or sale. When such animals, 
meat, fish, vegetables, produce, fruit, or provisions are found on 
such inspection to be tainted, diseased, corrupted, decayed, or 
unwholesome from any cause, said inspectors shall seize the same, 
and cause them or it to be destroyed or disposed of otherwise than 
for food ; but if, at the time of the seizure, the owner of the prop- 
erty seized notifies in writing the inspector seizing the same of his 
desire to appeal to the board of health, said inspector shall cause 
said animals, meat, fish, vegetables, produce, fruit, or provisions 
to be inspected by said board of health, or by a committee thereof 
consisting of not less than two members ; and if said board or 
committee find the same to be tainted, diseased, corrupted, or 
unwholesome, they shall order the same to be destroyed or dis- 
posed of otherwise than for food. If said board or committee do 
not so find, they shall order said animals, meat, fish, vegetables, 
produce, fruit, or provisions to be forthwith returned to the owner 
thereof. All moneys received by said inspectors or board of 
health for property disposed of as aforesaid shall, after deducting 
all expenses incurred by reason of such seizure, be paid to the 
owner of such property. 
Each member 
may slaughter 
on premises. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 107, § 5. 
Appointment of 
inspectors of 
provisions. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 58, § 1. 
Duties and 
powers of in- 
spectors. 
Public Statutes, 
0. 58, § 2. 32 
Duties and pow- 
ers of inspectors 
relative to 
veal. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 58, § 3. 
104. Said inspectors may inspect all veal found in said cities or 
towns, or offered or exposed for sale or kept with intent to sell 
therein, and if said veal is, in the judgment of the inspector, that 
of a calf killed under four weeks old, he shall seize the same and 
cause it to be destroyed or disposed of as provided in the preced- 
ing section, subject, however, to the provisions therein contained 
concerning appeal and the disposal of moneys. 
105. When complaint is made on oath to any police, district, or 
municipal court, or to a magistrate authorized to issue warrants in 
criminal cases, that the complainant believes that any diseased 
animals, or any tainted, diseased, corrupted, decayed, or unwhole- 
some meat, fish, vegetables, produce, fruit, or provisions of any 
kind, or any veal of a calf killed under four wreeks old, are kept or 
concealed in a particular house or place with the intent to kill, 
sell, or offer the same for sale for food, the court or magistrate, if 
satisfied there is reasonable cause for such belief, shall issue a 
warrant to search for such animals or articles, and all such war- 
rants shall be directed and executed as provided in section three 
of chapter two hundred and twelve of the public statutes. If, upon 
hearing, said court or magistrate determines that said animals or 
articles or any of them were kept or concealed for the purposes 
aforesaid, the same shall be destroyed or disposed of by the 
inspector, or by any officer designated by the court or magistrate 
according to the preceding provisions; if the court or magistrate 
does not so determine, said animals or articles shall be returned 
to the owner. 
106. Whoever knowingly sells, or offers or exposes for sale, or 
has in his possession with intent to sell for food, any diseased ani- 
mal, or any tainted, diseased, corrupted, decayed, or unwholesome 
meat, fish, vegetables, produce, fruit, or provisions of any kind 
whatever, shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more 
than sixty days, or by fine of not more than one hundred dollars. 
107. The place where property condemned under this chapter is 
found, and the name of every person in whose possession it is 
found, and of every person convicted of an offence under the pre- 
ceding section, shall be published in two newspapers published in 
the county in which the property wras found or the conviction took 
place. 
108. The provisions of this chapter shall not be in force in any 
city or town unless they are adopted by the city council of such 
city or by the inhabitants of such town, or unless the provisions of 
chapter one hundred and eighty of the statutes of the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-six have been already so adopted. 
Search warrants 
for unwhole- 
some food, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 58, § 4. 
Penalty for 
knowingly sell- 
ing, etc., un- 
wholesome 
food. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 58, § 5. 
Name and place 
of business of 
person con- 
victed to be 
published. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 58, § 6. 
This chapter not 
to be in force 
unless accepted. 
Public Statutes, 
e. 58 § 7. 33 
OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 
109. Whoever knowingly sells any kind of diseased, corrupted, 
or unwholesome provisions, whether for meat or drink, without 
making the same fully known to the buyer, shall be punished by 
imprisonment in the jail not exceeding six months, or by fine not 
exceeding two hundred dollars. 
The gist of the offence under this section consists in the guilty knowledge 
or evil intent of a party in selling what he knows to be unfit for food. The 
sale, of itself, is not made criminal ; but it is the sale coupled with 
the knowledge of the diseased state of the thing sold which constitutes the 
offence. 
Commonwealth c. Boynton, 12 Cush. 499. 
110. Whoever kills or causes to be killed, for the purpose of 
sale, any calf less than four weeks old, or knowingly sells, or has 
in his possession with intent to sell, the meat of any calf killed 
when less than four weeks old, shall be punished by imprisonment 
in the jail or house of correction not exceeding six months, or by 
fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or by both such imprison- 
ment and fine ; and all such meat exposed for sale, or kept with 
intent to make sale thereof, may be seized and destroyed by any 
board of health or health officer, or by any sheriff, deputy-sheriff, 
constable, or police officer. 
Where a party is charged with an offence of " killing or causing to be 
killed, for the purpose of sale, any calf less than four weeks old," it is not" 
necessary to allege in the indictment, or prove, that he knew the calf to be 
less than four weeks old. The defendant is bound to know the facts and 
obey the law at his peril. 
Under the next clause of this section, the offence is not the killing of the 
calf, but "knowingly" selling, or having in possession with intent to sell, 
the meat of a calf killed when less than four weeks old; and this language 
makes the defendant's knowledge essential to be alleged and proved. 
The legislature saw fit to make the man who kills, or causes to be killed, a 
calf for the purpose of sale, at all events punishable if the animal was less 
than four weeks old; but to punish the man who sells veal, only in case he 
knows it to have been killed when under four weeks old. 
Commonwealth v. Raymond, 97 Mass. 567. 
111. Whoever fraudulently adulterates, for the purpose of sale, 
bread or any other substance intended for food, with any substance 
injurious to health, or knowingly barters, gives away, sells, or has 
in possession with intent to sell, any substance intended for food 
which has been adulterated with any substance injurious to health, 
shall be punished by imprisonment in the jail not exceeding one 
year, or by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars ; and the 
articles so adulterated shall be forfeited, and destroyed under the 
direction of the court. 
Selling corrupt 
or unwholesome 
provisions with- 
out notice. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208, § 1. 
Killing for sale, 
or selling, calf 
less than four 
weeks old. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208,§ 2. 
Adulterating 
food. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208, § 3. 
See Acts of 1882, 
c. 263. 34 
Adulterating 
liquor used for 
drink with In- 
dian cockle, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208, § 4. 
112. Whoever adulterates, for the purpose of sale, any liquor 
used or intended for drink with Indian cockle, vitriol, grains of 
paradise, opium, alum, capsicum, copperas, laurel water, logwood, 
Brazil wood, cochineal, sugar of lead, or any other substance 
which is poisonous or injurious to health, and whoever knowingly 
sells any such liquor so adulterated, shall be punished by imprison- 
ment in the state prison not exceeding three years; and the 
articles so adulterated shall be forfeited. 
113. Whoever fraudulently adulterates, for the purpose of sale, 
any drug or medicine, or sells any fraudulently adulterated drug or 
medicine, knowing the same to be adulterated, shall be punished 
by imprisonment in the jail not exceeding one year, or by fine not 
exceeding four hundred dollars ; and such adulterated drugs and 
medicines shall be forfeited, and destroyed under the direction of 
the court. 
114. Whoever sells arsenic, strychnine, corrosive sublimate, or 
prussic acid, without the written prescription of a physician, shall 
keep a record of the date of such sale, the name of the article, the 
amount thereof sold, and the name of the person or persons to 
whom delivered ; and for each neglect shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding fifty dollars. Whoever purchases deadly poisons as 
aforesaid, and gives a false or fictitious name to the vendor, shall 
be punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars. 
115. Whoever wilfully or maliciously defiles, corrupts, or makes 
impure any spring, or other source of water, or reservoir, or 
destroys .or injures any pipe, conductor of water, or other property 
pertaining to an aqueduct, or aids or abets in any such trespass, 
shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or 
by imprisonment in the jail not exceeding one year. 
116. Whoever wilfully deposits excrement, or foul or decaying 
matter, in any water used for the purpose of domestic water- 
supply, or upon the shore thereof within five rods of the water, 
shall be punished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or by impris- 
onment not exceeding thirty days ; and a police officer or con- 
stable of a city or town in which such water is wholly or partly 
situated, acting within the limits of his city or town, and any 
executive officer or agent of a water board, board of water com- 
missioners, or water company furnishing water for domestic pur- 
poses, acting upon the premises of such board or company and not 
more than five rods from the water, may without a warrant arrest 
any person found in the act of violating the provisions of this 
section, and detain him until a complaint can be made against him 
therefor. But this section shall not be so construed as to interfere 
with the sewage of a city, town, or public institution, or to pre- 
drugs or 
medicines. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 208, § 5. 
Persons selling 
certain poisons 
to keep record, 
etc. 
Purchasers who 
give false name, 
etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208, § 6. 
Corrupting 
spring, etc., or 
injuring aque- 
duct. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208, § 7. 
sources of do- 
mestic water- 
supply. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 208, § 8. 35 
vent boating, bathing, or fishing, or the enriching of land for 
agricultural purposes by the owner or occupant thereof. 
POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND SOURCES OF WATER-SUPPLY. 
117. No sewage, drainage, or refuse or polluting matter, of such 
kind and amount as either by itself or in connection with other 
matter will corrupt or impair the quality of the water of any pond 
or stream hereinafter referred to, for domestic use, or render it 
injurious to health, and no human excrement, shall be discharged 
into any pond used as a source of water-supply by a city or town, 
or upon whose banks any filter basin so used is situated, or into 
any stream so used, or upon whose banks such filter basin is situ- 
ated, within twenty miles above the point where such supply is 
taken, or into any feeders of such pond or stream within such 
twenty miles. 
118. The preceding section shall not be construed to destroy or 
impair rights acquired by legislative grant prior to the first day of 
July in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, or to destroy 
or impair prescriptive rights of drainage or discharge, to the 
extent to which they lawfully existed on that date ; and nothing 
therein contained shall be construed to authorize the pollution of 
any waters in this commonwealth, in any manner contrary to law ; 
nor shall it be applicable to the Merrimack or Connecticut Rivers, 
or to so much of the Concord River as lies within the limits of the 
city of Lowell. 
119. The state board shall have the general supervision of all 
streams and ponds used by a city or town as sources of water-sup- 
ply, with reference to their purity, together with the waters feeding 
the same, except the Merrimack, Connecticut, and Concord Rivers ; 
and shall examine the same from time to time, and inquire what 
pollutions exist and their causes. In case of a violation of any of 
the above provisions, the state board may appoint a time and place 
for hearing parlies to be affected, and give due notice thereof to 
such parties, and after such a hearing, if in its judgment the pub- 
lic health requires it, may order any person to desist therefrom, 
and to remedy the pollution, or to cleanse or purify the polluting 
substances in such a manner and to such a degree that they shall 
be no longer deleterious to the public health, before being cast or 
allowed to flow into the waters thereby polluted. Upon the appli- 
cation of a city or town to the state board, alleging the pollution 
of its water-supply by the violation of any of the above provisions, 
the state board shall give notice and grant a hearing as aforesaid, 
and upon proof of such violation shall issue the order or orders 
already mentioned in this section. 
Sources of wa- 
ter-supply not to 
be polluted. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 96. 
Certain rights 
not to be im- 
paired. Pro- 
hibition not 
applicable to 
certain rivers. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 97. 
State board to 
have super- 
vision of sources 
of water-supply. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 98. 36 
The action of the board may be either the result of its own observations 
and discoveries in the investigation called for by the statute, or it may be 
taken in consequence of an application by a city or town. 
Pebbles v. City of Boston, 131 Mass. 
120. The supreme judicial court, in term time or vacation, may 
issue an injunction to enforce such orders of the state board. 
121. Such orders of the state board shall be served upon parties 
found to have violated any of the provisions hereof; and any party 
aggrieved thereby shall have the right of appeal to a jury, and be 
subject to the provisions of sections eighty-eight and ninety, chap- 
ter eighty, Public Statutes, During the pendency of the appeal, 
the pollution against which the order has issued shall not be con- 
tinued contrary to the order of the state board. 
It is clear from the above provision that the proceedings instituted by the 
person aggrieved by an order of the board must begin with an appeal from 
the order. They are not in the nature of independent original proceedings, 
but have their foundation in an appeal. The action of the board of health, 
whether taken on its own motion as the result of its voluntary investigations 
or pursuant to an application by a city or town, is judicial in its character; 
and an order made by the board, and not appealed from, has the binding 
force and effect of a judgment by a tribunal of competent jurisdiction. In 
the absence of any thing in the statutes to indicate that appeals from orders 
of the state board are to be taken in any other way than that which has 
become familiar in analogous cases before other tribunals, it must be held 
that they are to be taken in substantially the same way with such appeals, 
and that the right to appeal can be preserved only by informing the board in 
some definite and distinct manner that an appeal is taken. It cannot be 
supposed that the legislature intended that an appeal may be taken simply 
by making a petition to the superior court or one of its judges for a jury, 
while the tribunal appealed from is left in ignorance of the appeal, to pro- 
ceed, if it sees fit, through the proper application to the supreme court, for 
the enforcement of its order thus appealed from. Accordingly, where the 
party appealing failed to enter his appeal with the board, the court held that 
he was not entitled to a jury. 
Pebbles v. City of Boston, 131 Mass. 
122. Whoever drives a horse on the ice on a pond, the water of 
which is used for the purpose of domestic water-supply for a city 
or town, shall be punished by tine not exceeding fifty dollars, or 
imprisonment not exceeding thirty days. 
123. The preceding section shall not apply to persons engaged 
in cutting or harvesting ice from such ponds, or in hauling logs, 
wood, or lumber. 
124. Water boards, water commissioners, and water companies 
making use, as a source of water-supply, of any pond, stream, 
reservoir, or well, within the commonwealth, and distributing the 
waters thereof for public, domestic, and general uses, shall make 
returns to the state board on or before the first day of November 
Supreme judi- 
cial court may 
enforce orders 
of state board. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 99. 
Orders to be 
served on 
parties. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 100. 
Penalty for 
driving horse 
on ice of pond 
used for water- 
supply. etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 101. 
Exception to 
above. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 102. 
Water boards, 
etc., to make 
triennial returns 
to state board. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 103. 37 
in every third year, beginning with the year eighteen hundred and 
eighty-two, of the facts hereinafter enumerated : provided, that the 
expense incurred by any such board, commissioners, or company 
shall not exceed fifty dollars. And the state board shall publish 
triennially, in its report to the legislature, the returns received, 
arranged by counties separately, and those from each county alpha- 
betically. 
125. Each of such water boards, commissioners, and companies 
shall state in the proper places on the blanks which the state board 
shall, on application, furnish for the purpose, - 
1. Its name, charter, or other legal basis, and place of business. 
2. The source or sources of its water-supply, and the name, if any, and 
location of each. 
3. The superficial area of its water-surface, if pond, reservoir, or large 
well. 
4. The area of water-shed supplying such source or sources. 
5. The general geological and topographical character of the water-shed. 
6. The estimated capacity of each such source by average daily flow. 
7. The estimated capacity of each such source by minimum daily flow. 
8. Whether the water-shed is also wholly or in part that of other ponds, 
streams, or reservoirs besides that used by the party making return; and if 
so, to what extent. 
9. Whether or not the source employed by the party making return is 
used jointly by some other party for a water-source; and if so, by whom. 
10. Whether there are other sources within ten miles, not already appro- 
priated by law, that could be availed of in connection with the source or 
sources now enjoyed by the party making return; and if so, what, and their 
location, area, water-shed, and the means necessary to connect, with the 
distance from present source, and from territorj' to be supplied. 
11. What danger of contamination the waters at present held are liable to. 
12. Whether or not an analysis has been made of the water at present 
used, and the results of any such; by whom, and where. 
13. Whether the waters at present used have been stocked with fish; if so, 
to what extent, by whom, and where. 
14. What up to date has been the cost of the water-works in use, includ- 
ing rights and lands taken, and all damages paid; stating cost of water-rights 
separately, and to whom paid. 
15. Whether the storage capacity of the present source can be increased, 
and at what probable cost, exclusive of damage by flowing, and at what 
damage to private parties or corporations 
16. Whether any town, village, or city discharges its sewers or drains into 
the source used by the returning party, or their tributaries. 
17. The population of the town, city, or village so discharging its sewers 
or drains into said source, and the character of its manufactures. 
18. The apparent results of such sewage. 
19. The average daily consumption for the year of the population sup- 
plied by the party making return. 
20. The per centum used by families. 
21. The average consumption per family per day. 
22. The probable increase of demand, as near as can be estimated, for the 
next year. 
Form of return. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 104. 38 
23. The water-rates established. 
24. The system of distribution, whether by gravity, stand-pipe, direct 
pumping, reservoir, or otherwise. 
25. The condition of water debt and sinking-fund. 
26. How the effluent water is now got rid of. 
27. Into what stream or body of water it finally flows. 
28. What protection against impurity of present source not now provided 
is desired. 
29. What additional expense such protection would involve, and to whom. 
126. The state board shall, on application from the parties who 
are required to make said returns, furnish the requisite blanks 
therefor; and any water board, commissioners, or company re- 
quired to make said returns shall for every neglect or failure so to 
do forfeit fifty dollars to the use of the local board of health, or the 
proper officers acting as such, of the city or town in which such 
delinquent has its principal office. And the state board shall pros- 
ecute, by an action of tort in the name of the commonwealth, for 
the recovery of the penalty or forfeit herein imposed. 
GENERAL PROVISION. 
127. The provisions extend to cities so far as the same are 
not inconsistent with their several charters or acts in amendment 
thereof. 
CEMETERIES AND BURIALS. 
128. Lots in cemeteries shall be held indivisible, and upon the 
decease of a proprietor, his heirs at law, or the devisees of such 
lot if devised, shall succeed to his privileges. If there is more 
than one heir or devisee, they shall within nine months from such 
decease designate in writing to the clerk of the corporation which 
of their number shall represent the lot; and on their failure so to 
designate, the board of trustees or directors of the corporation 
shall enter of record which of said heirs or devisees shall represent 
the lot while such failure continues. 
129. The preceding section shall apply to all tombs in public 
cemeteries in cities, and the boards of health in cities shall exer- 
cise, in regard to such tombs, the powers granted by said section 
to trustees or directors of cemetery corporations. 
130. Boards of health of cities and towns may make all regula- 
tions which they judge necessary concerning burial-grounds and 
interments within their respective limits ; may prohibit the use by 
undertakers, for the purpose of speculation, of tombs as places of 
deposit for bodies committed to them for burial; and may establish 
penalties not exceeding one hundred dollars for any breach of such 
regulations. 
State board to 
furnish blanks. 
Penalty for neg- 
lect to make 
returns. State 
board to prose- 
cute. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 80, § 105. 
Chapter extends 
to cities. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 80, § 106. 
Lots to be 
jndivisible, but 
inheritable. 
Representative 
of, how desig- 
nated. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 3. 
Provisions of 
preceding sec- 
tion to apply to 
tombs in public 
cemeteries in 
cities, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
p. 82, § 4. 
Boards of 
Jiealth may 
make regula- 
tions. 
Public Statutes, 
p. 82, § 19. 39 
The powers given to boards of health are large and general to make 
regulations for the interment of the dead and respecting burying-grounds. 
Withington v. Inhabitants of Harvard, 8 Cush. 68. 
This section is not confined in its operation to acts done within the 
burial-grounds. The word " interments " properly includes and describes 
the removal of the bodies of deceased persons for the purpose of burial. 
That this necessary duty shall be performed, especially when undertaken 
for hire, by suitable and trustworthy persons, and that the moving of dead 
bodies through the public streets shall be conducted with decency and safety, 
are obviously matters proper for municipal regulation, and which, as well as 
tihe mode of burial, may concern the public health to no slight extent. 
Commonwealth v. Goodrich, 13 Allen, 546. 
The board of health of a city may establish a regulation prohibiting any 
person, unless appointed an undertaker or otherwise authorized by the 
board of health, from moving from any house or other place in the city to 
any place of burial the body of any deceased person, and making it the duty 
of undertakers to attend funerals when required, and to collect and pay 
over the burial fees, and requiring, further, each undertaker to give bonds 
in the sum of two hundred dollars. 
The refusal or neglect of a person appointed an undertaker to give the 
bond required by the regulation would justify the revocation of his appoint- 
ment without any previous notice to him. 
Commonwealth v. Goodrich, 13 Allen, 546. 
131. Notice of such regulations shall be given by publishing the 
same in some newspaper of the city or town, or, if there is no such 
newspaper, by posting a copy in some public place therein ; which 
shall be deemed legal notice to all persons. 
132. For every interment in violation of section eighteen, chap- 
ter eighty-two of the Public Statutes, in a city or town in which 
the notice prescribed in the preceding section has been given, the 
owner of the land so used shall forfeit not less than twenty nor 
more than one hundred dollars. 
Sect. 18 of chap. 82, Public Statutes, provides that, " Except in the case of 
the erection or use of a tomb on private land, for the exclusive use of the 
family of the owner, no land other than that already so used or appropri- 
ated shall be used for the purpose of burial, unless by permission of the 
town or of the mayor and aidermen of the city in which the same is 
situated." 
133. Before a tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery is closed by 
order of such board of health for a time longer than one month, all 
persons interested shall have an opportunity to be heard, and per- 
sonal notice of the time and place of hearing shall be given to at 
least one owner of the tomb, and to three at least, if so many there 
are, of the proprietors of such burial-ground or cemetery, and 
notice shall also be published two successive weeks at least pre- 
ceding such hearing, in two newspapers, if so many there are, 
published in the county. 
134. The owner of a tomb aggrieved by the order of the board 
Boards of health 
to give notice 
of regulations. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 20. 
Penalty for 
interments in 
violation of sec- 
tion eighteen. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 21. 
Notice to be 
given before 
closing tombs, 
etc., by order of 
board. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 22. 
Appeal from 40 
order of board. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 23. 
of health closing a tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery, may appeal 
therefrom, and at any time within six months from the date of the 
order enter his appeal in the superior court; and the appellant 
shall give the board of health fourteen days' notice of his appeal 
previous to the entry thereof. But the order of the board shall 
remain in force until a decision is had on the appeal. 
135. Appeals shall be tried in regular course before a jury, and 
if the jury find that the tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery so closed 
was not a nuisance nor injurious to the public health at the time of 
the order, the court shall rescind such order so far as it affects 
such tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery, and execution for the 
costs of the appeal shall issue in favor of the appellant against the 
city or town in which the same was situated. But if the order is 
sustained, execution shall issue for double costs against the appel- 
lant in favor of the board of health for the use of the city or town. 
136. The city council of a city may, upon report of the board of 
health thereof that the public health requires it, and after public 
notice and hearing in the manner hereinafter provided, forbid 
future interment in any tomb within the city. 
137. Such report shall specify the tomb or tombs to which it 
refers, and name the owner thereof, if known ; and thereupon the 
city clerk shall give notice to such owners as are known and reside 
within the commonwealth, and shall likewise publish a notice at 
least twice a week for four consecutive weeks in two or more news- 
papers published in the city, or in the county wherein said city is 
situate, reciting such report, and notifying all parties interested in 
the premises to appear before a joint committee of the city council 
at a time not less than two nor more than three months from the 
last publication of said notice, and show cause why such tomb or 
tombs should not be closed. After such hearing the city council 
may, upon a vote of both branches thereof and with the approval 
of the mayor, declare said tomb or tombs to be closed, and no 
interments shall thereafter be permitted therein. 
138. When, in the judgment of the board of health of a city, a 
tomb therein needs repair, such board shall give notice thereof to 
the owner, or any one of the owners thereof, requiring said tomb 
to be put in a proper state of repair within three months from the 
date thereof; and if the owner of such tomb is unknown, the board 
may publish notice in the manner provided in the preceding sec- 
tion, requiring the owner to repair such tomb within the time 
above mentioned ; and if the owner does not so repair such tomb, 
then the board may enter upon the same and make the repairs 
needed, at the expense of the city. If the public health requires 
immediate action, the board may make the necessary repairs, the 
to be tried by 
jury. Costs. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 24. 
Interments in 
tombs in cities 
may be for- 
bidden, when 
and how. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 25. 
Tombs to be 
specified; no- 
tice; hearing. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 26. 
Notice to repair 
tombs may be 
given, when and 
how, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 27. 41 
cost of which shall be refunded upon demand by the owner of such 
tomb. If the city incurs any expense in regard to a tomb in the 
manner before specified, such tomb shall be held by said board, 
and no further use shall be made thereof until the owner pays 
such expense and interest thereon ; and after twenty years' pos- 
session under this act for non-repairs, all interest and right of 
burial in such tomb shall vest in the city in which the same is 
situate. 
139. Any person aggrieved by the action of the city council or 
board of health under the three preceding sections may appeal 
therefrom in the manner provided by sections twenty-three and 
twenty-four, chapter eighty-two, Public Statutes. 
140. No human body shall be buried or removed from any city 
or town until a proper certificate has been given by the clerk or 
registrar to the undertaker, sexton, or other person performing the 
burial or removing the body. Such certificate shall state that the 
facts required by chapter thirty-two of the Public Statutes have 
been returned and recorded ; and no clerk or registrar shall give 
such certificate or burial permit until the certificate of the pause 
of death has been obtained from the physician, if any. in attend- 
ance at the last sickness of the deceased and placed in the hands 
of said clerk or registrar ; and in cities and towns where there are 
boards of health, the certificate of the cause of death shall also be 
approved by such board before a permit to bury is given by the 
registrar or clerk. Upon application, the chairman of the board of 
health, or any physician employed by any city or town for such pur- 
pose, shall sign the certificate of the cause of death to the best of 
his knowledge and belief, if there has been no physician in at- 
tendance. He shall also sign such certificate, upon application, 
in case of death by dangerous contagious disease, or in any other 
event when the certificate of the attending physician cannot for 
good and sufficient reasons be early enough obtained. In case of 
death by violence, the medical examiner attending shall furnish the 
requisite medical certificate. Any person violating the provisions 
of this section shall be punished by fine not exceeding twenty-five 
dollars. 
141. The boards of health of towns and the mayor and aider- 
men of cities shall, on or before the first day of July in each year, 
license a suitable number of undertakers to take charge of the 
funeral rites preliminary to the interment of a human body. 
142. Whoever, not being authorized by the board of health, 
overseers of the poor, directors of a workhouse, or mayor and 
aidermen or selectmen of a city or town, or by the board of direct- 
ors for public institutions or overseers of the poor of the city of 
Appeal from 
orders under 
three preceding 
sections. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 82, § 28. 
Burial or re- 
moval of body 
not permitted 
until certificate 
has been 
given. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 32, § 5. 
Undertakers to 
be licensed by 
board of health. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 32, § 6. 
Violation of 
sepulture. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 207, § 47. 42 
Boston, wilfully digs up, disinters, removes, or conveys away a 
human body or the remains thereof, or knowingly aids in such dis- 
interment, removal, or conveying away, and whoever is accessory 
thereto either before or after the fact, shall be punished by impris- 
onment in the state prison or jail not exceeding three years or by 
fine not exceeding two thousand dollars. 
The removal of a dead body is not an offence within the meaning of the 
above statute, unless it is removed with the intent to use it or dispose of it 
for the purpose of dissection. 
Commonwealth v. Slack, 19 Pick. 306. 
CONTAGIOUS DISEASES AMONG CATTLE. 
143. The mayor and aidermen of cities and the selectmen of 
towns, in case of the existence in this commonwealth of the dis- 
ease called pleuro-pneumonia among cattle, or farcy' or glanders 
among horses, or any other contagious or infectious disease among 
domestic animals, shall cause the animals in their respective cities 
and towns, which are infected, or which have been exposed to 
infection, to be secured or collected in some suitable place or places 
within their cities or towns, and kept isolated ; and. when taken 
from the possession of their owners, one-fifth of the expense of 
their maintenance shall be paid Ly the city or town wherein the 
animal is kept, and four-fifths by the commonwealth ; such isola- 
tion to continue so long as the existence of such disease or other 
circumstances may render it necessary. 
141 The mayor and aidermen and selectmen respectively, when 
any such animal is adjudged by a veterinary surgeon or physician 
by them selected to be infected with any contagious disease, may 
in their discretion order such diseased animal to be forthwith killed 
and buried at the expense of such city or town. 
145. The}' may cause all such animals to be appraised by three 
competent and disinterested men under oath, at the value thereof 
at the time of the appraisement, and the amount of the appraise- 
ment shall be paid as provided above. 
14G. They may, within their respective cities and towns, pro- 
hibit the departure of animals from any enclosure, or exclude 
animals therefrom. 
147. They may make regulations, in writing, to regulate or pro- 
hibit the passage from, to, or through their respective cities or 
towns, or from place to place within the same, of any cattle or 
other domestic animals, and may arrest and detain, at the cost of 
the owners thereof, all animals found passing in violation of such 
regulations, and may take all other necessary measures for the 
enforcement of such prohibition, and also for preventing the spread 
Animals with 
contagious dis- 
eases to be 
isolated, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 1. 
may be killed 
Public Statutes 
C. 90, § 2. 
their value to 
be appraised, 
and how paid. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 3. 
Animals may 
he kept isolated. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 4. 
Passage of ani- 
mals through 
towns may be 
regulated. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 5. 43 
of any disease among the animals to their respective cities and 
towns, and the immediate vicinity thereof. 
148. Such regulations shall be recorded upon the records of their 
cities and towns respectively, and shall be published in such cities 
and towns in such manner as may be provided in such regulations. 
149. They may cause every animal infected with any such dis- 
ease, or which has been exposed thereto, to be forthwith branded 
upon the rump with the letter P; and no animal so branded shall 
be sold or disposed of except with the knowledge and consent of 
such mayor and aidermen and selectmen. A person who, without 
such knowledge and consent, sells or disposes of an animal so 
branded, or sells or disposes of an animal known to be affected 
with such disease, or to have been exposed thereto within one year 
previous to such sale or disposal, shall be punished by fine not 
exceeding five bundled dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding 
one year. 
150. Any person disobeying the orders of the mayor and aider- 
men or selectmen, made in conformity with the preceding pro- 
visions, or driving or transporting any animals contrary to the 
regulations made, recorded, and published as aforesaid, shall be 
punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprison- 
ment not exceeding one year. 
151. Whoever knows or has reason to suspect the existence of 
any such disease among the animals in his possession or under his 
care shall forthwith give notice thereof to the mayor and aidermen 
of the city or selectmen of the town where such animals are kept, 
and for failure so to do shall be punished by fine not exceeding 
five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year. 
152. A city or town whose officers neglect or refuse to carry into 
effect the preceding provisions shall forfeit a sum not exceeding 
five hundred dollars for each day's neglect. 
153. The mayor and aidermen of cities and selectmen of towns, 
when in their judgment it is necessary to carry into effect the pur- 
poses of this chapter, may, within their respective cities and towns, 
take and hold, for a term not exceeding one year, any land, without 
buildings other than barns thereon, upon which to enclose and 
isolate any animals ; and they shall cause the damages sustained 
by the owner in consequence of such taking and holding to be 
appraised by the assessors of the city or town wherein the lands so 
taken are situated ; and they shall further cause a description of 
such land, setting forth the boundaries thereof, and the area as 
nearly as may be estimated, together with said appraisement, 
to be entered on *the records of the city or town. The amount 
of said appraisement shall be paid, as before provided, in such 
Regulations to 
be recorded, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 6. 
Animals may be 
branded. Pen- 
alty for selling. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 7. 
Penalty for 
violation of 
rules, etc. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 8. 
Owners suspect- 
ing disease to 
give notice. 
Penalty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 9. 
Penalty on 
towns for 
neglect. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 10. 
Lands may be 
taken; dam- 
ages ; appeal. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 11. 44 
sums and at such times as the mayor and aidermen or selectmen 
respectively may order. If the owner of land so taken is dissat- 
isfied with said appraisement, he may by action of contract recover 
of the city or town wherein the lands lie a fair compensation for the 
damages sustained by him ; but no costs shall be taxed unless the 
damages recovered in such action, exclusive of interest, exceed said 
appraisement. And the commonwealth shall reimburse to the city 
or town four-fifths of any sum recovered of it in any such action. 
154. The governor, with the advice and consent of the council, 
may appoint a board of cattle commissioners of not more than 
three members, when in his judgment the public safety may require 
it, and may terminate their commissions when in his judgment the 
public safety may permit it. The compensation of such commis- 
sioners shall not exceed four dollars per day for actual service, in- 
addition to their travelling expenses necessarily incurred. 
155. When such commissioners make and publish any regula- 
tions concerning the extirpation, cure, or treatment of animals in- 
fected with or which have been exposed to any contagious disease, 
such regulations shall supersede those made by mayors and aider- 
men and selectmen ; and mayors and aidermen and selectmen shall 
carry out and enforce all orders and directions of the commis- 
sioners to them directed. 
156. Such commissioners shall have all the power and authority 
herein conferred upon mayors and aidermen and selectmen ; and, 
in addition, may establish a hospital or quarantine, with proper 
accommodations, wherein any cattle selected by them may be 
detained and treated by veterinary surgeons or physicians. And 
for this purpose the commissioners may take any land and build- 
ings in the manner before provided. 
157. Mayors and aidermen and selectmen, within twenty-four 
hours after they have notice that any domestic animals in their 
respective cities and towns are infected with or have been exposed 
to any such disease, shall give notice thereof in writing to the 
commissioners. 
158. The commissioners may make all necessary regulations for 
the treatment, cure, and extirpation of such disease, and may 
direct mayors and aidermen and selectmen respectively to enforce 
and carry into effect all such regulations as may from time to time 
be made for that end ; and any such officer who refuses or neglects 
to enforce and carry out any regulation of the commissioners shall 
be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars for every 
such offence. 
159. The commissioners, when in their judgment the public 
good requires it, may cause to be killed and buried any domestic 
Cattle commis- 
sioners may be 
appointed. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 12. 
Regulations by 
commissioners 
to supersede 
those by select- 
men. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 13. 
Hospital may be 
established. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 14. 
Selectmen to 
notify com- 
missioners. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 15. 
Commissioners 
may make reg- 
ulations as to 
cattle. 
Public Statutes, 
C. 90, § 16. 
May cause in- 
fected animals 
to be killed. 45 
animals which are infected with or have been exposed to such dis- 
ease ; and, except as provided in the following section, shall cause 
such animals to be appraised in the manner provided above, and 
the appraised value of such animals shall be paid, one-fifth by the 
cities or towns in which such animals were kept, and the remainder 
by the commonwealth. 
160. In all cases of farcy or glanders, the commissioners, having 
condemned the animal infected therewith, shall cause such animal 
to be killed, without an appraisement, but may pay the owner an 
equitable sum for the killing and burial thereof. 
161. A person who fails to comply with a regulation made or an 
order given by the commissioners shall be punished by fine not 
exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding 
one year. 
162. Prosecutions under the preceding section may be main- 
tained in any county. 
163. All appraisements made shall be in writing and signed by 
the appraisers and certified by the mayors and aidermen or select- 
men or commissioners respectively, to the governor and council 
and to the treasurers of the several cities and towns wherein the 
cattle appraised were kept. 
164. The commissioners may examine under oath all persons 
believed to possess knowledge of material facts concerning the 
existence or dissemination or danger of dissemination of diseases 
among domestic animals ; and for this purpose shall have all the 
powers vested in justices of the peace to take depositions and to 
compel witnesses to attend and testify by chapter one hundred and 
sixty-nine of the Public Statutes. All costs and expenses in- 
curred in procuring the attendance of such witnesses shall be al- 
lowed and paid to the commissioners from the treasury of the 
commonwealth, upon being certified to and approved by the gov- 
ernor and council. 
165. Whenever animals exposed to contagious diseases are 
killed by order of the commissioners, and upon a post-mortem 
examination are found to have been entirely free from disease, the 
commissioners shall cause the same to be sold under their direc- 
tion, first giving to the purchaser notice of the facts, and if the said 
purchaser or any other person shall sell said slaughtered animals 
or any part thereof, he shall in like manner give notice to the par- 
ties to whom such sales are made ; and the proceeds of the sales 
made by order of the commissioners shall be applied .in payment 
of the appraised value of said animals. 
166. Whoever violates any of the provisions of the preceding 
section shall be punished by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars 
and the costs of prosecution. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 17. 
Farcy and 
glanders. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 18. 
Penalty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 19. 
Prosecutions, 
where main- 
tained. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 20. 
Appraisements. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 21. 
Commissioners 
may examine 
persons. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 22. 
May sell animals 
killed when not 
diseased. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 23. 
Penalty. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 24. 46 
Commissioners 
to keep record 
and make re- 
port. 
Public Statutes, 
c. 90, § 2o. 
167. Cattle commissioners, now or hereafter appointed, shall 
keep a full record of their doings, and report the same to the legis- 
lature on or before the tenth day of January in each year, unless 
sooner required by the governor ; and an abstract of the same 
shall be printed in the annual report of the state board of agri- 
culture. 
ADULTERATION OF FOOD AND DRUGS. 
168. No person shall, within this Commonwealth, manufacture 
for sale, offer for sale or sell any drug or article of food which is 
adulterated within the meaning of this act. 
169. The term "drug" as used in this act shall include all 
medicines for internal or external use, antiseptics, disinfectants 
and cosmetics. The term " food " as used herein shall include all 
articles used for food or drink by man. 
170. An article shall be deemed to be adulterated within the 
meaning of this act, - 
(a.) In the case of drugs,- (1.) If, when sold under or by a 
name recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia, it differs 
from the standard of strength, quality or purity laid down therein ; 
(2.) If, when sold under or by a name not recognized in the 
United States Pharmacopoeia but which is found in some other 
pharmacopoeia, or other standard work on materia medica, it 
differs materially from the standard of strength, quality or purity 
laid down in such work ; (3.) If its strength or purity falls below 
the professed standard under which it is sold : 
(6.) In the case of food, - (1.) If any substance or substances 
have been mixed with it so as to reduce, or lower, or injuriously 
affect its quality or strength ; (2.) If any inferior or cheaper sub- 
stance or substances have been substituted wholly or in part for 
it; (3.) If any valuable constituent has been wholly or in part 
abstracted from it; (4.) If it is an imitation of, or is sold under 
the name of. another article; (5.) If it consists wholly or in part 
of a diseased, decomposed, putrid or rotten animal or vegetable 
substance, whether manufactured or not; or, in the case of milk, 
if it is the produce of a diseased animal; (6.) If it is colored, 
coated, polished or powdered, whereby damage is concealed, or 
if it is made to appear better or of greater value than it really 
is; (7.) If it contains any added poisonous ingredient, or any 
ingredient which may render it injurious to the. health of a person 
consuming it. 
171. The state board of health, lunacy and charity may from 
time to time declare certain articles or preparations to be exempt 
from the provisions of this act; and the provisions hereof shall 
Adulterated 
food and drugs 
not to be sold, 
etc. 
Construction 
of the terms 
" drug" and 
" food." 
What shall be 
deemed to be an 
adulteration. 
State board of 
health, etc., may 
declare certain 
articles to be 
exempt. 47 
not apply to mixtures or compounds recognized as ordinary arti- 
cles of food, provided that the same are not injurious to the health, 
and are distinctly labelled as mixtures or compounds. 
172. The state board of health, lunacy and charity shall pre- 
pare and publish from time to time lists of the articles, mixtures 
or compounds declared to be exempt from the provisions of this 
act in accordance with the preceding section. The said board 
shall also from time to time fix the limits of variability permis- 
sible in any article of food, or any drug, or compound, the stan- 
dard of which is not established by any national pharmacopoeia. 
173. The state board of health, lunacy and charity shall take 
cognizance of the interests of the public health relating to the 
sale of drugs and food and the adulteration of the same, and shall 
make all necessary investigations and inquiries in reference there- 
to, and for these purposes may appoint inspectors, analysts and 
chemists, who shall be subject to its supervision and removal. 
174. Within thirty days after the passage of this act the said 
board shall adopt such measures as it may deem necessary to 
facilitate the enforcement hereof, and shall prepare rules and regu- 
lations with regard to the proper methods of collecting and ex- 
amining drugs and articles of food. Said board may expend 
annually an amount not exceeding three thousand dollars for the 
purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act. 
175. Every person offering or exposing for sale, or delivering 
to a purchaser, any drug or article of food included in the pro- 
visions of this act, shall furnish to any analyst or other officer or 
agent appointed hereunder, who shall apply to him for the purpose 
and shall tender him the value of the same, a sample sufficient for 
the purpose of the analysis of any such drug or article of food 
which is in his possession. 
176. Whoever hinders, obstructs, or in any way interferes with 
any inspector, analyst, or other officer appointed hereunder in the 
performance of his duty, and whoever violates any of the provis- 
ions of this act. shall be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty 
dollars for the first offence and not exceeding one hundred dollars 
for each subsequent offence. 
177. This act shall take effect at the expiration of ninety days 
after its passage. 
To publish lists 
of articles, etc., 
exempted. 
May appoint 
analysts, etc., 
to make investi- 
gations. 
To prepare 
rules, etc., for 
examining 
drugs, etc. 
Samples to be 
furnished to 
analyst upon 
tender of value. 
Penalties. 
When to take 
effect. I N D E X. 
Page 
Adulterated Food. (See Diseased Provisions.) 
Adulterated Drink. (Sge Diseased Provisions.) 
Adulterated Food and Drugs. 
Not to be sold 46 
Construction of terms 46 
What shall be deemed an adulteration 46 
Articles exempt 46, 47 
Analysts 47 
Rules for examinations 47 
Samples for analysts 47 
Agents and Assistants to Boards of Health. 
May be appointed 7, 8 
Compensation of 7 
Authority of 8 
May make complaints 8 
To report to board of health . . . . 8 
Appeal. 
None lies from adjudication that nuisance exists 10 
In case of damages awarded concerning wet lands 15 
In case of neglect or refusal of board of health to act .... 15 
Notice to be given to opposite party 15 
Necessary proceedings 15 
Costs and expenses, how paid 15 
In case of offensive trades, from order of board of health . . .25, 26 
Costs in appeal, in matter of offensive trades 27 
In case of offensive trades, from order of state board .... 29 
In case of order of state board concerning polluted waters ... 36 
In case of tombs closed by order of board of health .... 40 
In case of tonics closed by order of city council 41 
In case of tombs ordered to be repaired 41 
Decisions 10, 29, 36 
Burial-Grounds. (See Cemeteries.) 
Burials. 
Not permitted until certificate given 41 
Certificate, what to contain 41 
Certificate to be approved by board of health 41 
Certificate to be approved by chairman of board of health ... 41 
Certificate to be approved by city physician 41 
Certificate to be approved by medical examiner 41 
Undertakers to be licensed 41 49 
Page 
Burials - continued. 
Sepulture, violation of 41 
Board of health to regulate . . . 38, 39 
Penalty for violating regulations 39-41 
Decisions 39-42 
Cattle. (See Contagious Diseases among Cattle.) 
Cattle Commissioners. 
May be appointed 44 
Compensation of 44 
Regulations of, to supersede those of selectmen 44 
Powers and authority 44, 45 
Selectmen to give notice of infected animals 44 
May cause infected animals to be killed 44 
Farcy and glanders, animals infected with, to be killed .... 45 
Penalty for failing to comply with regulations 45 
May examine persons 45 
Costs and expenses, how paid 45 
May sell animals killed when not diseased 45 
Record to be kept and report to legislature 46 
Cemeteries. (See Tombs.) 
Lots in, to be held indivisible 38 
One of heirs to represent lot 38 
Board of health to regulate 38 
Regulations, notice of, to be given 39 
Penalty for violating regulations 39 
Tombs, when and how closed 39 
Decisions 39 
City Boards of Health. 
How appointed and established 6*78 
City council to be, if none appointed 
May appoint physician 7 
May establish salaries and fees of employees . . . . * . 7 
Term of office 7 
Vacancies in office, how filled 7 
Members subject to removal 7 
Compensation of members • 7 
Compensation of agents 7 
Organization of 7 
May choose clerk 
Rules and regulations of 7 
Powers of 7 
Agents and assistants of . . 7 g 
Reports to city council 
House drainage, may enforce regulations g 
Retain charge to exclusion of overseers of poor g 
Nuisances, may make regulations respecting 9 
Nuisances, may prevent or destroy p_n 
Unfit dwelling-houses to be vacated 
May enter premises to examine 13 
Wet lands, powers over 13 
Wet lands, return to be made to city or town clerk 15 
Infected articles, may grant permits to remove. . . . , 15 50 
Page 
City Boards of Health --continued. 
Infected persons, may make provision for , 15, 16 
Infected persons, may prevent travelling 16 
Prisoners attacked with dangerous disease may be removed ... 17 
Lying-in hospitals, to certify in certain cases 19 
Lying-in hospitals, to visit 19 
Infants taken to board, persons -engaged in business to notify ... 19 
May enter and inspect house where infants are boarded . . . , 19 
Quarantine of vessels, may establish 20 
Hospitals for persons with dangerous diseases, subject to orders of . 21 
Hospitals for dangerous diseases, board to provide 21 
Flags to be displayed in case of infection 21 
Offensive trades, places may be assigned for 23 
Offensive trades may be prohibited 23 
On seizure of diseased meats, etc., by inspector, appeal lies to . . 31 
Certificate of cause of death to be approved by 41 
Tombs, to exercise powers in refeience to 38-40 
Penalties may be established in relation to .tombs 38 
Burial-places, certain powers in relation to 38 
Decisions 6 
Clerk of Boards of Health. 
Not to be a member of board 7 
Compensation 7 
Contagious Diseases. (See Dangerous Diseases.) 
Dangerous Diseases. 
Powers of state board 5 
Towns may establish hospitals for 21 
Hospitals to be provided by board of health . . ... 21 
Notice to be given of infected places 21 
Flags to be displayed 21 
Householders to give notice of 22 
Physicians to give notice of 22 
Expenses incurred, how paid 23 
Persons infected by, may be removed to hospital 21 
Diseased Provisions. (See Inspection.) 
Selling unwholesome meats, etc. 33 
Selling meat of calf less than four weeks old 33 
May be seized and destroyed 33 
Adulterating food 33 
Adulterating drink 34 
Adulterating medicines 34 
Decisions 33 
Drainage. (See House Drainage.) 
Not to be discharged into sources of water-supply 35 
Dwelling-Houses. 
Unfit for occupation may be vacated 12 
Fines and Forfeitures. (See Penalties.) 
How recovered 22 
Decisions 22 
Hospitals. (See Lying-in Hospitals.) 
Towns may establish 21 
Subject to orders and regulations of board of health .... 21 51 
Page 
Hospitals - continued. 
Not to be near dwelling-houses 21 
Not to be occupied without authority 21 
Dangerous diseases, board of health to provide for 21 
Regulations of, penalty for violating 22 
House Drainage. 
Regulations may be established by board of health 8 
Infants. (See Protection of Infants.) 
Infected Persons and Articles. 
Board of health may permit removal of . 15 
Infected persons to be removed to separate house 16 
Infected persons, care of 16 
Expenses incurred in care of, how paid 16 
If cannot be removed, persons in neighborhood to be removed . . 16 
Infected persons may be restrained from travelling 16 
Warrant may issue to remove infected person 17 
Warrant may issue to take up houses, etc. 17 
Warrant may issue to secure infected articles 17 
Expenses of securing and purifying, how paid 17 
Compensation for houses, etc., taken 17 
Prisoners infected to be removed 17 
Decision as to liability for expenses 16 
Injunction. 
To prevent nuisances . . 13 
To prevent use of building for hospital 21 
To restrain offensive trades 25-29 
To enforce orders of state board in relation to pollution of water . . 36 
Decisions 25-29 
Inspection of Provisions and Animals intended for Slaughter. 
Inspectors to be appointed 31 
Compensation of inspectors 31 
Duties and powers of inspectors * 31 
Inspectors to seize diseased meats, etc 31 
Appeal lies to board of health 31 
Veal to be inspected 32 
Veal of calf under four weeks to be seized 32 
Search-warrants for unwholesome meats, etc 32 
Penalty for knowingly selling diseased meats 32 
Names of convicted persons and places of business to be published . 32 
Not in force unless accepted by town or city 32 
Interments. (See Burials.) 
Lying-in Hospitals. 
Selectmen may license 19 
Licenses to be for two years, but revocable 19 
Subject to visitation by board of health 19 
Subject to visitation by state board of health, lunacy, and charity . . 19 
Penalties for keeping hospital without license . . t . . . . 19 
Medical Examiner. 
Certificate of cause of death, when to be made by 41 
Notice. 
Regulations of boards of health to be published 9 
Board of health may order nuisance removed without previous notice . 10 52 
Page 
Notice - continued. 
Board of health may prohibit an offensive trade without previous notice, 23 
Wet lands, notice of hearing concerning 14 
Burial regulations, concerning 39 
Tombs, when closed 39, 40 
Tombs, when to be repaired 40 
Decisions 9, 10,16, 23, 25 
Nuisances. 
Regulations respecting 9 
Penalties for violating regulations 9 
May be removed or prevented 9-11 
Adjudication of board of health conclusive 10 
Expenses incurred in removal of 11, 12, 22 
Removed, how may be 11 
Court may order removal 13 
Injunction may issue to prevent 13 
Board of health may enter premises to destroy . • . • . . 13 
Decisions 9, 10, 11, 12 
Offences against Public Health. 
Selling unwholesome provisions 33 
Killing for sale calf less than four weeks old 33 
Selling meat of calf less than four weeks old 33 
Adulterating food 33 
Adulterating drink 34 
Adulterating medicine and drugs 34 
Corrupting springs and reservoirs 34 
Decisions 33 
Offensive Trades. (See Swine-Slaughtering Associations.) 
Places may be assigned for 23 
May be prohibited without notice 23 
Assignments to be recorded 23 
Assignments may be revoked 23, 25 
Keeping swine not an offensive trade 24 
Form of order prohibiting 24, 26 
Assignment may be revoked by court 25 
Damages caused, how recovered 25 
Orders of prohibition to be served on occupant 25 
Appeal allowed from board of health 25 
Business not to be exercised pending appeal 26 
Jury may alter order of board of health 26 
Buildings not to be used for, without permission 27 
Buildings used for, not to be enlarged 27 
State board of health, lunacy, and charity may prohibit .... 28 
Decisions concerning offensive trades .... 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 
Qrders. 
To be in writing 10 
How served 10 
Form of 11 
Decisions 10, 11, 23, 24, 25, 26 
Penalties. 
Violating regulations respecting nuisances 9 
Failure to remove nuisance 10 53 
Page 
Penalties - continued. 
Occupying dwelling-house after order to quit 12 
Infected persons travelling 16 
Refusing to assist officer in case of infected persons and articles . . 17 
Neglect to be vaccinated 18 
Keeping lying-in hospitals without license 19 
Violation of regulations concerning infants taken to board ... 19 
Refusing admission to house where infants are boarded .... 19 
Violating quarantine regulations 20 
Establishing hospital without authority 21 
Removing flags displayed in infected places 21 
Violating regulations in hospitals 22 
Failure to give notice of small-pox, etc 22 
To inure to towns 22 
Violating regulations in hospitals 22 
Refusing to obey orders in relation to offensive trades .... 25 
Occupying building for offensive trades 27, 28 
Violation of regulations of swine-slaughtering establishments . . 30, 31 
Selling diseased meat, etc 32 
Selling unwholesome provisions 33 
Killing calf for sale less than four weeks old 33 
Selling meat of calf less than four weeks old 33 
Adulterating food 33 
Adulterating drink 34 
Adulterating medicines and drugs 34 
Giving false name to vendor of arsenic, etc 34 
Corrupting and defiling water 34 
Driving horse on ice of pond used for water-supply 36 
Water boards, etc., failing to make certain returns 38 
Burial-grounds, violation of regulations 38, 39 
Burials, violation of regulations 41 
Sepulture, violation of 41 
Selling diseased animal when branded . . . . . . . 43 
Diseased animals, violating regulations concerning 43 
Violating regulations of cattle commissioners . . . . . . 45 
Adulteration of food and drugs ... 47 
Physicians. 
To boards of health 7, 8 
How appointed 7, 8 
Term of office 7, 8 
Salary of 7 
Removal of 8 
In hospitals for dangerous diseases 21 
Notice to be given of small-pox and other dangerous diseases . . 22 
Certificate of cause of death to be given by 41 
Poisons. 
Record to be kept by persons selling . . . 34 
Penalty for failure or neglect to do so 34 
Penalty for giving false name by purchaser 34 
Penalty for selling without keeping record 34 
Pollution of Water. (See Water.) 54 
Page 
Protection of Infants. 
Persons taking infants to board to notify board of health ... 19 
Penalty for violating regulations of boards of health .... 19 
Boards of health may enter and inspect houses 19 
Boards of health may establish regulations 19 
Quarantine. 
Towns may establish 20 
Assent of town to be obtained 20 
May be established by two or more towns 20 
Boards of health may establish quarantine of vessels .... 20 
Regulations '.20 
Penalty for violating regulations 20 
Expenses, how paid 20 
Decision as to liability for expenses 20 
Record. 
To be kept by board of health 10 
Of sales of arsenic, etc 34 
Of regulations in relation to diseased animals 43 
Of assignments of places for offensive trades 23 
Of land taken by swine-slaughtering associations 29 
Of land taken for isolation of diseased animals 43 
Rivers. (See Water.) 
Slaughter-Houses. (See Offensive Trades.) 
Small-Pox. (See Dangerous Diseases.) 
Powers of state board of health, lunacy, and charity .... 5 
Householders to give notice of 22 
Physicians to give notice of 22 
Persons infected with, when may be removed 23 
Expenses incurred, how paid 23 
State Board of Health. 
Originally established 5 
Powers enlarged 5 
When abolished 5 
State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. 
Term of office 5 
Of what number to consist 5 
Vacancies, how filled 5 
Originally established 5 
Powders and duties 5 
Contagious diseases, duties in case of 5 
Concurrent powers with local boards 5, 24 
To visit lying-in hospitals 19 
To approve expenses in certain small-pox cases 23 
May prohibit offensive trades 28 
To approve the taking land by swine-slaughtering associations . . 29 
To approve plans for buildings to be used by swine-slaughtering associa- 
tions 30 
To establish regulations for business of swine-slaughtering associations, 30 
To have supervision of sources of water-supply 35 
Water boards and companies to make certain returns to . . . . 36 
To publish triennial returns 37 
To furnish blanks to water boards, etc 38 55 
Page 
Swine-Slaughtering Associations. 
Corporations may be formed 29 
May take land with approval of state board 29 
Liability for damages 30 
Damages, how assessed 30 
May carry on slaughtering business 30 
Business to be regulated by state board 30 
Each member may slaughter . . 31 
Buildings to be approved by state board 30 
Penalty for violating regulations 31 
Town Boards of Health. 
How chosen 6 
Of what number to consist 6 
Selectmen to be, if none chosen 6 
May appoint physician 7 
May establish salaries and fees of employees 7 
Shall retain charge in certain cases to exclusion of overseers of poor . 8 
May appoint agents 8 
Nuisances, may make regulations respecting 9 
Nuisances, may destroy or prevent 9-11 
Unfit dwelling-houses may be vacated 12 
May enter premises to examine 13 
We.t lands, powers of board over 13 
Wet lands, return to be made by board 15 
Infected articles, may grant permits to remove 15 
Infected persons, may make provision for 15, 16 
May order removal of prisoners infected with dangerous disease . . 17 
Infected persons may be restrained from travelling 18 
To certify in case of lying-in hospitals 19 
To visit lying-in hospitals 19 
Persons taking infants to board to notify board ..... 19 
May enter and inspect houses where infants are boarded . . . . 19 
May establish quarantine of vessels 20 
Hospitals for persons with dangerous diseases subject to order of board, 21 
Hospitals for persons with dangerous diseases to be provided ... 21 
Flags to be displayed in case of infectious diseases 21 
Offensive trades, places may be assigned for 23 
Offensive trades may be prohibited 23 
On seizure of diseased meats by inspector, appeal lies to board . . 31 
May seize veal in certain cases 33 
Burial-places, powers in relation to 38 
To approve certificate of cause of death 41 
Undertakers to be licensed 41 
Penalties may be established for violation of regulations of tombs . . 38 
Tombs. (See Cemeteries.) 
Board of health to exercise certain powers 38 
May be closed by board of health 39 
Appeal lies from order of board 40 
Interments may be forbidden 40 
To be repaired when necessary 40 
The use of, may be prohibited 38 
Penalties may be established by board of health 38 56 
Page 
Vaccination. 
Children, to be vaccinated 18 
Mayor and aldermen may require it 18 
Selectmen may require it 18 
Penalty for neglect 18 
Towns to furnish means 18 
Inmates of factories to be vaccinated 18 
Inmates of prisons to be vaccinated 18 
Vessels. 
Board of health may establish quarantine 20 
Board of health may establish regulations concerning nuisances . . 9 
Board of health may examine and remove nuisances .... 9 
Wet Lands. 
May be deemed nuisances 13 
Powers and duties of boards of health 13, 14 
Nuisances, how abated 13, 14 
Proceedings to abate nuisance 14 
Damages, and upon whom assessed 14 
Return to be made to city or town clerk 15 
Board of health refusing to act, party may apply to superior court . . 15 
Commissioners may be appointed 15 
Appeal to a jury 15 
Water and Water-Supply. 
Penalty for defiling 34 
Penalty for defiling domestic water-supply 34 
Sources of water-supply not to be polluted 35 
State board to have supervision 35 
Penalty for driving horse on ice of certain ponds 36 
State board may prohibit pollution 35 
Appeal to a jury, and how taken 36 
Injunction may issue 36 
Decisions 36 
Water Boards and Companies. 
To make triennial returns to state board 36 
Form of return 37 
Blanks to be furnished by state board 38 
Penalty for failure to make returns 38