(CIRCULAR NO. 40, REVISED.) 
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
State JSoarb of Ibealtb- 
The Law Establishing Boards 
of Health in Boroughs. AN ACT 
To enable borough councils to establish boards of health.* 
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the ‘Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General 
Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of 
the same, That it shall be the duty of the president of the town 
council or burgess, where he is the presiding officer of every 
borough in this Commonwealth, within six months after the 
passage of this act, to nominate and, by and with the consent 
of the council, to appoint a board of health of such borough, 
to consist of five persons, not members of the council, one of 
whom shall be a reputable physician of not less than two years’ 
standing in the practice of his profession. 
At the first appointment, the president of the town council, 
or burgess, where he is the presiding officer, shall designate one 
of the members to serve for one year, one to serve for two years, 
one to serve for three years, one to serve for four years and one 
to serve for five years; and thereafter one member of said board 
shall be appointed annually to serve for five years. 
The board shall be appointed by districts to be fixed by the 
town council, representing as equally as may be all portions 
of the borough. The members shall serve without compensa- 
tion. 
Section 2. The duties, responsibilities, powers and preroga- 
tives of said board shall be identical with those assigned to 
boards of health of cities of the third class by sections three, 
|four, five, six and seven of article eleven of the act of May 
twenty-third, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, en- 
titled “An act providing for the incorporation and government 
of cities of the third class,” which reads as follows, due allow- 
ance being made for the difference in the municipal govern- 
ment of cities and boroughs. 
* Note—The provisions of this act are equally applicable to cities of the third class, 
due allowance being- made for the difference in municipal organization and names of 
officers. 4 
Section 3. The members of the board shall severally take 
and subscribe the oath prescribed for borough officers, and 
shall annually organize by the choice of one of their number as 
president. They shall elect a secretary who shall keep the 
minutes of their proceedings and perform such other duties as 
may be directed by the board, and a health officer, who shall ex- 
ecute the orders of the board; and, for that purpose, the said 
health officer shall have and exercise the powers and authority 
of a policeman of the borough. The .secretary and health offi- 
cer shall receive such salary as may be fixed by the board, and 
shall hold their office during the pleasure of the board. They 
shall severally give bond to the borough in such sums as may 
be fixed by ordinance for the faithful discharge of their duties, 
and shall also take and subscribe the oath required by mem- 
bers of the board. All fees which shall be collected or received 
by the board or by any officer thereof, in his official capacity, 
shall be paid over into the borough treasury monthly, together 
with all penalties which shall be recovered for the violation of 
any regulation of the board. 
The president and secretary shall have full power to adminis- 
ter oaths or affirmations in any proceedings or investigation 
touching the regulations of the board, but shall not be entitled 
to receive any fee therefor. 
Section 4. The said board of health shall have powrer and it 
shall be their duty to make and enforce all needful rules and 
regulations to prevent the introduction and spread of infec- 
tious or contagious diseases, by the regulation of intercourse 
with infected places, by the arrest, separation and treatment of 
infected persons and persons who shall have been exposed to 
any infectious or contagious diseases, and by abating and re- 
moving all nuisances which they shall deem prejudicial to the 
public health, to inforce vaccination, to mark infected houses 
or places, to prescribe rules for the construction and mainte- 
nance of house drains, wTaste pipes, soil pipes and cess pools, 
and to make all such other regulations as they shall deem nec- 
essary for the preservation of the public health. They shall 
also have power with the consent of the council, in case of the 5 
prevalence of any contagious or infectious disease within the 
borough, to establish one or more hospitals, and to make pro- 
vision and regulations for the management of the same. The 
board may in such cases appoint as many ward or district phy- 
sicians and other sanitary agents as they may deem necessary, 
whose salaries shall be fixed by the board before their ap- 
pointment. It shall be the duty of all physicians practicing 
within the borough to report to the secretary of said board of 
health the names and residences of all persons coming under 
their professional care afflicted with such contagious or infec- 
tious diseases, in the manner directed by the said board. 
Section 5. The said board of health shall have power, as a 
body, or by committee, as well as the health officer, together 
with his subordinates, assistants and workmen, under and by 
order of the said board, to enter, at any time, upon any prem- 
ises in the borough upon which there is suspected to be any in- 
fectious or contagious disease or nuisance detrimental to the 
public health for the purpose of examining and abating the 
same, and all written orders for the removal of nuisances is- 
sued to the said health officer by order of said board, attested 
by the secretary, shall be executed by him and his subordinates 
and workmen, and the cost and expenses thereof shall be re- 
erable from the owner or owners of the premises from which 
the nuisance shall be removed, or from any person or persons 
causing or maintaining the same, in the same manner as debts 
of like amount are now by law collected. 
Section 6. The said board of health shall have power to 
create and maintain a complete and accurate system of the reg- 
istration of all marriages, births and deaths which may occur 
within the borough, and to compel obedience to the same upon 
the part of all physicians and other medical practitioners, cler- 
gymen, magistrates, undertakers, sextons and all other persons 
from whom information for such purposes may properly be re- 
quired. The board shall make and cause to be published, all 
necessary rules and regulations for carrying into effect the 
powers and functions with which they are hereby invested, 
which rules and regulations, when approved by the borough council and chief burgess, and when advertised in the same 
manner as other ordinances, shall have the force of ordinances 
of the borough; and all penalties for the violation thereof, as 
well as expenses necessarily incurred in carrying the same into 
effect, shall be recoverable for the use of the borough in the 
same manner as penalties for the violation of borough ordi- 
nances, subject to the like limitation as to the amount thereof. 
Section 7. It shall be the duty of the board of health to sub- 
mit annually to the council, before the commencement of the 
fiscal year, an estimate of the probable receipts and expendi- 
tures of the board during the ensuing year, and the council 
shall then proceed to make such appropriation thereto as they 
shall deem necessary, and the said board shall, in the month of 
January of each year, submit a report in writing to the coun- 
cil of its operations for the preceding year, with the necessary 
statistics thereof, together with such information or sugges- 
tions relative to the sanitary condition and requirements of the 
borough as it may deem proper; and the council shall publish 
the same in its official journal. It shall also be the duty of the 
board to communicate to the State Board of Health, at least 
annually, notice of its organization and membership, and 
copies of all its reports and publications, together with such 
sanitary information as may, from time to time, be required 
by said State Board. 
Section 8. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with, or con- 
trary to, the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 7 
PRECAUTIONARY AND HYGIENIC CIRCULARS IS- 
SUED BY THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH OF PENN- 
SYLVANIA. 
No. 7. Precautions against Cholera, Cholera Infantum, 
Cholera Morbus, Summer Diarrhoea and Dysentery. 
No. 7. Precautions against Cholera, etc. (German.) 
No. 7. Precautions against Cholera, etc. (Slovak.) 
No. 7. Precautions against Cholera, etc. (Italian.) 
No. 8. Precautions against Small Pox. 
No. 18. Precautions against Typhoid Fever. 
No. 19. Precautions against Diphtheria. 
No. 20. Contagious and Infectious Diseases. 
No. 20. Contagious and Infectious Diseases. (German.) 
No. 20. Contagious and Infectious Diseases. (Slovak.) 
No. 20. Contagious and Infectious Diseases. (Italian.) 
No. 21. Precautions against Scarlet Fever. 
No. 22. Precautions against Trichinosis. 
No. 22. Precautions against Trichinosis. (German.) 
No. 24. Recommendations in regard to the care of Infants. 
No. 25. (Revised). The “Act for the better protection of the 
health and morals of school children;” with a description of a 
cheap and convenient earth closet. 
No. 26. School Hygiene, addressed to Teachers. 
No. 27. Camp Hygiene. 
No. 28. Precautions against Consumption. 
No. 29. The dangers arising from public funerals of those 
who have died from Contagious and Infectious Diseases. Ad- 
dressed to the Clerical Profession. 
No. 30. The disposal of the Sewage of Public Edifices. Ad- 
dressed to the Trustees and Managers of Public Institutions. 
No. 31. Precautions to be adopted by Funeral Directors to 
prevent the spread of Contagious and Infectious Diseases. 
No. 32. Precautions against Sunstroke. 8 
No. 33. School Hygiene, No. 2. Addressed to School Di- 
rectors and Trustees. 
No. 34. First Treatment of the apparently Drowned and Suf- 
focated. 
No. 35. The Prevention of Blindness. 
No. 36. Sanitary Protective Associations. 
No. 37. Emergency Hospitals. 
No. 38. The Care of the Eyes. 
No. 39. Dairy Hygiene. 
No. 40. The Law establishing Boards of Health in Boroughs. 
No. 41. Personal Precautions recommended to be taken by 
Physicians in attending those suffering from certain Communi- 
cable Diseases. 
No. 42. How to meet Cholera. Addressed to Boards of 
Health. 
No. 43. Model Eegulations for the Storage and Removal of 
Garbage. 
No. 44. Model Rules of Boards of Health. 
No. 45. Powers and Possibilities of Boards of Health. 
No. 46. The Sanitary Code of Pennsylvania for the Restric- 
tion of Communicable Diseases. 
No. 47. Precautions against Whooping Cough. 
No. 48. Precautions against Measles. 
No. 49. Suggestions with regard to Railroad Hygiene and 
the Prevention of Accidents. 
No. 50. School Hygiene No. 5. On the Teaching or Hygiene 
in the Public Schools. Addressed to Superintendents and 
Principals. 
Any of the above circulars may be obtained by residents of 
Pennsylvania on application to Dr. Benjamin Lee, Secretary of 
the State Board of Health, 1532 Pine street, Philadelphia, en- 
closing a two-cent postage stamp. The postage for the entire 
series, enclosed in a substantial box envelope, is nine cents. 
BENJAMIN LEE, M. D., 
Secretary.