Oftio. 
To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Ohio: 
The undersigned, your petitioners, voters of the 
State of Ohio, respectfully pray for the enactment of 
the annexed Bill, entitled, "An Act to Create a State 
Board of Health and Regulate the Practice of Medi- 
cine in the State of Ohio: SIGNATURES (Continued.) SIGNATURES (Continued.) SIGNATURES (Continued.) A BILL 
TO CREATE A 
tto.liii) OF HtB&BTa* A BILL TO CREATE A STATE BOARD OF HEALTH AND 
REGULATE THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE IN 
THE STATE OF OHIO. 
AN act to create a State Board of Health and to Regulate the 
Practice of Medicine : 
Sec. I. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
Ohio: That within fifteen days after the passage of this act the 
Governor shall nominate and by and with the consent and advice of 
the Senate appoint, from different parts of the State, nine physicians, 
active in practice and eminent in their profession, who, when 
organized, shall be known as the " Ohio State Board of Health." 
Three of said physicians shall be appointed for one year; three for 
two years; and three for three years ; and annually thereafter three 
physicians of like reputation and in like manner shall be appointed 
to fill the vacancies occurring in said board, who shall hold their 
offices for three years and until their successors are appointed and 
qualified. The said nine physicians so appointed within twenty days 
after their appointment,|having first taken the oath of office prescribed 
by the Constitution of the State for State officers and received 
certificates of their appointment from the Secretary of State, shall 
meet and organize by electing one of their number president. They 
shall also as soon as a suitable person can be obtained elect a secre- 
tary who shall be the executive officer of the board. They may 
elect one of their number a secretary, in which event the Governor 
shall fill the vacancy, and it is hereby made the duty of the Governor 
to fill all vacancies in said board occurring when the Legislature is 
not in session until the same shall meet again. 
Sec. II. The State Board of Health shall make, adopt and 
publish such rules and o»der of business as may be necessary to 
make this act effective and facilitate the transactions of its business. 
It shall provide a seal, and all correspondence and papers emanating 
from it shall be under the seal of said board. It shall meet quar- State Board of Health Bill. 
terly, and oftener if deemed necessary, at such place as it may desig- 
nate, the first meeting to be held in the city of Columbus. The 
annual meeting after the first shall be held during the month of 
June in each and every year, and a majority of its members shall 
constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. No members 
of the board, except the secretary, shall receive any compensation 
for services rendered; but their traveling and other necessary ex- 
penses, while employed on the business of the board, shall be 
allowed and paid. The secretary shall receive such compensation 
as may be allowed by the State Board of Health, and approved by 
the Governor, and to be paid him in the same manner as the salaries 
of other State officers are paid, and such necessary expenses shall 
be allowed him as the Secretary of State shall audit, on the pres- 
entation of an itemized account, having vouchers annexed, together 
with the certificate of the board. 
Sec. III. The secretary shall hold his office so long as he shall 
faithfully discharge the duties thereof; but may be removed for just 
cause, at any regular meeting of the board, by a majority of all the 
members voting therefor. He shall keep a record of the trans- 
actions of the board; shall have the custody of all books, papers, 
documents, and other property belonging to the board, which may 
come to him as such secretary, or be deposited in his office ; shall 
communicate with other State boards of health, and with the 
local boards of health within this State ; shall file and keep all 
reports received from such boards, and all correspondence of the 
office appertaining to the business of the board. He shall perform 
all other duties prescribed in this act for the said secretary, or 
directed by the State Board of Health. 
Sec. IV. The State Board of Health shall supervise the health 
interests of the people of this State. They shall make careful 
inquiry in respect to the causes of disease, and especially of epi- 
demics, and investigate the sources of mortality, and the effects of 
localities, employments, conditions, ingesta, habits, and surroundings, 
on the health of the people. They shall advise officers of the 
government or other State boards in regard to the location, drain- 
age, water supply, disposal of excreta, heating and ventilation of 
public buildings. They shall collect and preserve such information 
relating to health, forms of disease and deaths, as may be useful in 
the discharge of the duties of said board. And health officers of State Board of Health Bill. 
all local boards of health in the State shall transmit to said State 
Board of Health copies of their reports and publications and such 
sanitary information as may be useful to the people of the State. 
Sec. V. The State Board of Health shall supervise the registra- 
tion of marriages, births and deaths, and also the registration of 
forms of disease prevalent in the State, and the secretary of said 
board shall superintend the registration of the vital statistics of 
the State. They shall prepare the blank forms necessary for ob- 
taining and preserving such records, and forward such of them to 
the health officers of local boards as may be required by physicians, 
assessors, local boards, and others whose duty it is to gather infor- 
mation in relation to the vital statistics of the State. The State 
Board of Health shall also prepare the forms and establish the 
rules by which permits for transporting the dead bodies of 
persons for burial beyond the county where the death occurs : and 
in all cases the said State Board of Health shall require coupons to be 
attached to such permits, to be detached and preserved by every 
common carrier or the person in charge of any vessel, railroad 
train or vehicle to which dead bodies shall be delivered for trans- 
portation. Any violation of these rules shall subject the offender 
to a fine of ten dollars for each offense. 
Sec. VI. The State Board of Health shall, when they may think 
best so to do, appoint committees or engage suitable persons to ren- 
der special sanitary service, to make or supervise practical and 
scientific investigations and examinations, requiring expert skill, 
and to prepare plans, and report thereto. And it is hereby made 
the duty of all officers and agents, having the control, charge or 
custody of any public structure, work, ground or erection, or of any 
plan, description, outline, drawings, charts, thereof or relating 
thereto, made, kept or controlled under any public authority, to 
permit and facilitate the examination and inspection by said board 
ordered, and the members of said board, and such other officer, or 
person as may at any time be by said board authorized, may, with- 
out fee or hindrance, enter, examine and survey all grounds, erec- 
tions, vehicles, structures, apartments, buildings and places. But 
the Legislature shall first determine the amount which shall be ex- 
pended during the year for such special sanitary work, and the 
expenditure shall not exceed the amount thus determined and set 
apart for the year. State Board of Health Bill. 
Sec. VII. The directors of county infirmaries of the several 
counties of this State shall act as local boards of health for their 
respective counties. Each local board thus created shall elect a 
physician, preference being given to adepts in sanitary science, who 
shall be ex-officio a member of said local board and the health officer 
of the same. He shall hold his office during the pleasure of the 
board, but may be removed for just cause at any regular meeting of 
the same by a majority of the members voting therefor, on which 
motion he shall not vote. The local boards of health here created 
shall not supersede or in any way interfere with such boards estab- 
lished by municipal regulations in any of the counties of this State. 
But all local boards of health in this State, created by this act and 
existing by authority of municipal law, shall be governed by and 
perform such duties as may be required by the State. Board of 
Health. 
Sec. VIII. The health officer of the several local boards of 
health throughout the State immediately after his election shall 
notify the State Board of the fact, and state his postoffice address. 
He shall receive and without delay distribute all forms from the 
State Board of Health to the rightful persons and all returns from 
physicians, assessors, and local boards to the said State Board ot 
Health. And he shall perform such other duties as this act, his 
local board or the State Board of Health may require of him. And 
he shall receive for his services so rendered such reasonable com- 
pensation as his board may allow and the judge of the probate court 
approve to be paid out of the county treasury. And any failure of 
said health officer to perform the duties prescribed in this act shall 
subject him to a fine of ten dollars for each and every offense. 
Sec. IX. Every person proposing to engage or continue in 
the practice of medicine in this State shall, within thirty days after 
the organization of the State Board of Health provided for in this 
act, present to said board for verification and record a diploma from 
a reputable and legally organized medical college or an affidavit or 
other satisfactory evidence that the applicant is a graduate in medi- 
cine or has been in the continuous practice of medicine in this State 
for at least ten years preceding the passage of this act, whereupon 
the State Board of Health shall give to such applicant a certificate 
stating the facts as to graduation or continuous practice, to which 
shall be added the name of the county in which the applicant pro- 
poses to locate or is located, which certificate shall be recorded by the State Board of Health Bill. 
county clerk in a book to be provided by the county commissioners 
and kept in the office of the county clerk, and this certificate shall be 
conclusive evidence of the right of the lawful owner of the same to 
practice medicine in and from the place designated in said certificate, 
and without such certificate and record it shall not be lawful for 
any person to practice medicine in this State. And any one who 
prescribes or prescribes and furnishes medicines to the sick for a 
consideration shall be held in the meaning of this act as engaged in 
the practice of medicine. 
Sec. X. Every person applying for a certificate as provided 
for in this act shall pay a fee of one dollar, which shall be paid into 
the State treasury, and every person attempting to practice medi- 
cine in this State without such certificate, shall, upon conviction, be 
fined not less than five nor more than fifty dollars for each and 
every offense, to which may be added imprisonment not to exceed 
thirty days. And every physician who may be convicted of using 
his profession for unlawful purposes, as in the production of crimi- 
nal abortion, etc., shall be held as forfeiting his certificate and all 
right to practice medicine in this State. 
Sec. XI. It shall be the duty of every physician to keep a 
record of the deaths occurring in his practice or that may come to 
his knowledge where death occurs without medical attendance, noting 
the form of disease and as far as possible the cause which produced 
it, and report the same to the local board of health at the time and 
in the manner prescribed by the State Board of Health, and any 
failure to do so shall subject said physician to a fine of ten dollars 
for each and every offense. 
Sec. XII. It shall be the duty of assessors of personal property 
in the several townships and wards of cities and towns throughout 
the State annually to collect such information as to marriages, 
births and deaths as may be required by the State Board of Health, 
and report the same at the time and in the manner prescribed by 
said board to the local board of health, and any failure to do so shall 
subject such assessor to a fine of ten dollars for each and every 
offense. 
Sec. XIII. It shall be the duty of said State Board of Health, 
on or before the first Monday in December in each year, to make a 
report in writing to the Governor of the State upon the vital 
statistics and the sanitary condition and prospects of the State, and State Board of Health Bill. 
such report shall set forth the action of said board and of its officers 
and agents and the names thereof, and also the names of physicians 
registered for the past year, and may contain other useful informa- 
tion, and shall suggest any further legislative action or precautions 
deemed proper for the better protection of life and health; and the 
annual report of said board shall also contain a detailed statement 
of the money paid out by or on account of said board and a 
detailed statement of the manner of its expenditure during the last 
past year, but the amounts so paid out shall not aggregate a sum 
exceeding twelve thousand dollars in any one year, and the sum of 
twelve thousand dollars is hereby appropriated for the purposes of 
this act. And this report shall be published in form and manner 
as other State reports. 
Sec. XIV. It shall be the duty of all officers and persons 
named in this act to faithfully discharge the duties assigned to them 
severally, and all of such officers and persons who shall neglect or 
fail in the discharge of said duties where fines are not specifically 
stated shall be declared guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon convic- 
tion shall be fined in such sum as the court in its judgment may 
deem necessary to secure the proper enforcement of this act. And 
all prosecutions under this act shall be in the court of common 
pleas and conducted by the prosecuting attorney for the county in 
which the offense "was committed, and all fines imposed and collected 
shall be paid into the county treasury. 
Sec. XV. This act shall be in force and take effect 
immediately. And all acts and parts of acts in contravention of 
this act are hereby repealed.