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                  AN   ACT
Concerning  the Public Health  of the  Counties of
  New^York, Kings and Richmond,  and the waters
  thereof.
  The People  of the State of New- York, represented in Senate
and Assembly, do enact as follows:
  Section 1.  The  Governor, with  the consent of  the
Senate, shall  appoint  seven  citizens  who, with  the Health
Officer, the Mayors of New-York and Brooklyn, and  the
President of the Board   of Supervisors of the .County of
Richmond, shall  be called the Metropolitan Board of Health.
Four of said seven citizens, two of whom shall be practicing
physicians, shall reside  in  the  city of  Xew-York,  two
in the county of Kings, one of whom shall be a physician
residing in Brooklyn, and one in the county of Richmond.
One of said seven citizens shall be appointed to  serve for one
year, one for two years, one  for  three years,  one for four
years, one for rive years, one for six  years, and one for seven
vears, and thereafter there shall annually be appointed  one
to serve seven years; but the proportion of physicians in
said board, and  the residences  hereinbefore  mentioned,
shall be maintained.

  § 2.  The powers and  duties of the boards of health and
of all bureaux, offices and departments relating to the public
health of the  cities of Xew-York and Brooklyn  and in  the
counties  of Kings and Richmond are hereby solely vested
in the  Metropolitan Board  of Health, but they shall forth-
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 with discontinue all unnecessary bureaux, departments  and
 offices, and reconstruct those which may be retained, in such
 manner as may best promote an.  efficient and  economical
 administration  of the same.  They are hereby constituted
 the Commissioners of Health, and shall perform the duties
 and possess the powers now vested in such commissioners ;
 but they  may  appoint, from time to time, a committee of
 their  body, not less than three in number, one  from  New-
 York, one from Brooklyn, and one from Richmond county,
 who, with the Executive Officer of the Board and the Health
 Officer, may act as commissioners of health, but  whose acts
 shall be at all  times subject to revision  by the Board of
 Health.   Said board may designate the ports, places, or ter-
 ritories from which vessels, cargoes, or persons,  shall be
 subject to Quarantine restrictions, and the diseases that shall
 be subject thereto and may also designate by buoys suitably
 placed in the lower bay of New-York, anchorage for vessels
infected or dangerous to health.   The  Board  of Health
shall also, in the cities and counties named in this act, en-
force all laws and ordinances prohibiting or regulating  the
sale of poisonous, adulterated, or unwholesome drugs, medi-
cine, or food.  The laws relating to the registration of births,
marriages, and deaths in the city and county  of  New-York
are hereby extended and applied to  the county of Kings.
The  laws and  ordinances  relating  to  the public health,
interments, and the registration of  births, marriages and
deaths, of the  cities  of New-York and Brooklyn and of
the boards  of health  in the counties of Kings  and Rich-
mond, are hereby made the ordinances of the Metropolitan
Board of Health, subject to amendment and revision by said
board.  All proceedings for the enforcement thereof and for
the collection of fines or infliction of penalties for the breach
of the same, shall be instituted  and prosecuted solely by
said board. 
  $ 3.  Whenever any street or public place  in  the city of
Xew-York or Brooklyn shall be found not properly cleaned,
the board shall give notice thereof to the parties whose duty
it may be to clean such street or place, and require the
same to be properly cleaned within a specified time; and in
default of compliance said  board shall cause such street or
place to be cleaned, and the expenses thereof shall be paid
by  the department, or authorities,  or contracting parties,
whose  duty it was, in any event, to clean such street or place,
and in case of the neglect or refusal to pay the same, the said
board  shall  be entitled to  recover from such parties  the
amount so  expended,  and  shall institute and prosecute an
action  or actions at law therefor.

  § 4.  If any house, room, or premises, within the cities and
counties named in this act occupied as a dwelling, shall be
found unfit for such purpose from any cause injurious to the
public health, it shall immediately be reported to the Board
of Health, who shall keep an open record thereof, and alter
due personal examination,  upon being satisfied  that  such
report  is  true, they shall  serve a notice upon the lessee, or
if  there  be no  lessee,  upon the  owner,  directing   the
same  to  be put  in  proper  order and condition;  and
said room,  house, or premises  shall not be occupied under
a penalty of ten  dollars for every day it may be so occu-
pied, after sufficient  time shall have elapsed to comply
with such order,  to  be  recovered  of the said  lessee or
owner, until said order is complied with  to the satisfaction
of said Board.  Any person so notified  may, within  four
days after the service  of  such  order,  appeal  therefrom by
giving a written notice of such appeal; and the board shall
thereupon forthwith proceed to hear  and decide  such ap-
peal, and  their decision  shall  be  final.   Should any room,
cellar,  dwelling  place or premises in said district be found 
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to be  in  a condition dangerous  to  the public health by
reason of  emanations from  the  soil,  or  other place,  de-
fective drainage, or any other cause, the same shall  be re-
ported forthwith to  the Board of Health who shall, upon
being satisfied of its correctness, serve a notice upon the lessee,
or  if  there  be no   lessee,  upon   the owner,  directing
him   to  cleanse   and  purify  said  place   or premises,
and remove the  offending cause  within a specified time;
and  in  default  of  compliance  the  Board shall cause
such service to be  performed, and all the costs thereof, and
a penalty of fifty dollars, shall be imposed upon and collect-
ed  of said lessee or owner, by summary proceedings  before
a magistrate or police justice.  All fines and penalties  col-
lected under the provisions of this act,  shall be deposited in
the treasury of the county  in which they were collected, for
the use of the said  board in said county,  to be drawn out
only upon the warrant of  their treasurer, countersigned by
their president, specifying the object of such warrant.

   § 5. All books, records and documents pertaining to the
public health, and the registration of births, marriages,
deaths and  interments,  and  all the  property connected
therewith, now  in use or belonging to any  office created by
law in the cities of  New-York  and   Brooklyn,  and  the
counties of Kings and Richmond, shall become the property
of,  and  be  transferred  to  the Metropolitan  board  of
health.  All institutions supported  in whole or in part
at  public expense,  now  existing, or  hereafter established
in the counties  named in this  Act, shall make such returns
to  the Metropolitan  Board  of Health,  as  said  board may
 deem necessary to ascertain the sanitary condition of said
 counties  or any part  thereof.   The provisions  of the  statutes
 of this state relating to the removal from  office of  sheriffs,
 are hereby made applicable to each  of the appointed mem- 
o
bers of the Metropolitan Board of Health.   Said board shall
make an annual report of their transactions to the legislature.
No business  exclusively affecting any one county shall be
transacted  without the concurrence  of at least one member
from  such county.  Meetings shall  be held at least once  in
each week.   Said Board  shall appoint as  their chief execu-
tive officer a  practicing physician of  skill  and experience,
and an  inspector of health for the  county of  Kings,  of
like qualifications.   Vacancies in  the number of the  ap-
pointed  members of the  Metropolitan Board of  Health,
shall  be filled by the governor, subject to approval by  the
senate at  its  next  session, for  the  remainder of the unex-
pired term.

   § 6.   The  appointed  members  of  the  Metropolitan
Board  of Health  shall  each  receive an  annual  salary
of one  thousand dollars;  and  the members of the com-
mittee of said board who act as Commissioners of Health,
shall  receive  such additional  remuneration as the  said
board may determine, not  exceeding five hundred dollars
per annum, which shall  be charged as expenses of quaran-
tine.  Any expenses incurred by the  said board in their capa-
city of Commissioners of Health, shall become a charge upon
the counties named  in this Act, and shall be apportioned
to them in  the ratio of their representation in the assembly
of this state; but the salaries of the members of said Board
of Health shall be paid by the counties from which they are
respectively appointed.

   § 7. The moneys required for the  administration of this
Act,  shall be provided by the proper authorities of the coun-
ties herein named, upon estimates  previously prepared and
certified by  said Board  of  Health, and  submitted to said
authorities in the manner provided by law in regard to city 
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and county expenditures ;   but all expenses which shall be
incurred for the exclusive benefit of any one or two of said
counties,  and shall  be so  certified  by a  majority of said
board, under oath  or affirmation, shall  be paid  by such
county or counties respectively.   Should  the funds so pro^
vided be inadequate  to meet  extraordinary expenditures
rendered necessary by the prevalence of any epidemic  or in-
fectious  disease,  or by any other emergency  which may
threaten the public  health,  such deficiencies  shall be sup-
plied by  said authorities,  and  they are hereby  required,
with the assent of the governor, to raise  by loan, in antici-
pation of the annual  tax, such sum or sums as shall be  certi-
fied  to be necessary by the Metropolitan Board of Health
to meet such  deficiencies.

  §  8. All acts or parts of  acts inconsistent with any of the
provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.

  § 9. This act shall take effect immediately. 
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