Department of Public Health.

THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.-HIS

STATUTORY DUTIES.

UNDER the term statutory we include those duties of a Medical Officer of Health, as to certifying and advising, which he is called upon to perform under the Sanitary Acts. A review of these duties will, perhaps, most clearly show the subjects to which the chief responsibilities of his office attach, and with which he will find it requisite to be most thoroughly prepared to deal. We propose to recapitulate these duties in the order in which they appear in the Sanitary Acts, as cited in the Public Health Act, 1872.

1. The Local Government Acts.-These Acts include the Public Health Act, 1848 (11 and 12 Vict. c. 63); the Local Government Act, 1858 (21 and 22 Vict. c. 98); the Local Government Act, 1858; Amendment Act, 1861 (24 and 25 Vict. c. 61); the Local Government Act Amendment Act, 1863 (26 Vict. c. 17), and any enactments amending the same.

One section only of the Public Health Act, 1848, refers to a specific duty which the Medical Officer of Health may be called upon to perform under its provisions. By the 60th section of this Act, he may have to certify that any house or part of a house is in such a filthy or unwholesome condition that the health of any person is affected or endangered thereby, or that whitewashing, cleansing, or purifying of any house or part thereof would tend to prevent or check infectious or contagious disease.

But in relation to the provisions of this Act, he may be called

upon to advise the Sanitary Authorities as to proper (in the sense of not unwholesome) situations for places of deposit of sewage, soil, dung, filth, ashes, and other rubbish (sec. 56); as to the proper situation for public water-closets, privies, or other like conveniences (sec. 57); as to offensive collections of drainage, filth, water, or other matters, in ditches, drains, or pools sec. 58); as to the keeping of swine in improper situations, and as to accumulations of manure, dung, soil, or filth, or other offensive or noxious matter (sec. 59); as to food of man unfit for use (sec. 63), a duty specially recognised under the Regulations of the Local Government Board (sec. 8); and as to byelaws for the regulation of slaughter-houses (sec. 62), and of common lodging-houses (sec. 66).

The Local Government Act, 1858, gives the Sanitary Authority power to make bye-laws (a) for the prevention of nuisances arising from swine, filth, dust, ashes, and rubbish within their district, or of the keeping of animals so as to be injurious to the public health (sec. 32); and (b) as to the sufficiency of the space about buildings to secure a free circulation of air, and with respect to the ventilation of buildings; with respect to the drainage of buildings, to water-closets, privies, ashpits, and cesspools in connection with buildings, and to the closing of buildings or parts of buildings unfit for human habitation, and to prohibition of their use for such habitation (sec. 34). On all these matters the Medical Officer of Health is required by the Regulations of the Local Government Board (sec. 5) to advise.

Further, in the same Act are incorporated from the Towns. Improvement Clauses Act, 1847, certain provisions for the prevention of smoke and for the licensing and regulation of slaughter-houses. The Medical Officer of Health's duties as to smoke as a nuisance will be regulated by the provisions of the Sanitary Act, 1866, but he should make himself acquainted with the qualification as to the provisions for the prevention of smoke contained in the Local Government Act, 1858, sec. 45. In respect to slaughter-houses, one of the incorporated clauses provides that the Medical Officer of Health, or other officer appointed for the purpose, may at all reasonable times, with or without assistants, enter into and inspect any building or place whatsoever kept or used for the sale of butchers' meat or for

slaughtering cattle, and examine whether any cattle or the carcase of any such cattle is deposited there; and in case such officer shall find any cattle, or the carcase or part of the carcase of any beast, which appears unfit for the food of man, he may seize and carry the same before a justice, and such justice shall forthwith order the same to be further inspected and examined by competent persons.

2. The Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act.-Under this title is meant the Act so named of 1868 (31 and 32 Vict. c. 130). This Act has for object to provide better dwellings for artisans and labourers; and in sec. 5 it is enacted that if in any place to which the Act applies the Officer of Health finds that any premises therein are in a condition or state injurious to health, so as to unfit them for human habitation, he shall report the same in manner provided. Sec. 4 of this Act was repealed by sec. 11 of the Public Health Act, 1872; and all powers and duties imposed on Officers of Health under the Act were directed to be performed by the Medical Officers of Health appointed under the Public Health Act, 1872, the Sanitary Acts, or any Local Act.

3. The Bakehouse Regulation Act.-Under this title is meant the Act so named of 1863 (26 and 27 Vict. c. 40). This Act limits the hours of young persons employed in bakehouses, and makes regulations with respect to cleanliness and ventilation. The Medical Officer of Health, by sec. 6 of the Act, may be required to inspect any bakehouse during the hours of baking, and examine whether it is or is not in conformity with the provisions of the Act.

4. The Diseases Prevention Act.-Under this designation are included the Diseases Prevention Act, S55 (18 and 19 Vict. c. 116), and the amendments of this Act contained in an Act for the Removal of Nuisances and the Prevention of Diseases (23 and 24 Vict. c. 77, secs. 10 and 12). In rural districts the Sanitary Authority appointed under the Public Health Act, 1872, is to be the local authority for the purposes of this Act wherever it is in force; and by the Regulations (sec. 17) of the Local Government Board, the Medical Officer of Health, both in rural and urban districts, is required to observe the directions and regulations issued under that Act by the Local Government

Board, so far as the same relate to or concern his office. The directions and regulations which the Board has issued under this Act (which has only been put in force when Asiatic cholera has been present in the kingdom) relate to the speedy interment of the dead; to house-to-house visitation; to the dispensing of medicines, guarding against the spread of the disease, and affording to persons afflicted by or threatened with such epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, such medical aid and such accommodation as may be required.

5. The Common Lodging Houses Acts.-These Acts include the Common Lodging Houses Act, 1851 (14 and 15 Vict. c. 28), and the Common Lodging Houses Act, 1853 (16 and 17 Vict. c. 41). Under the Acts of 1851, the Sanitary Authority has power to make regulations for common lodging-houses, and the Medical Officer of Health is required by the Regulations of the Local Government Board (sec. 5) to advise his authority respecting these regulations. The suggested regulations issued by the Secretary of State, and which, if not in use now were in use to the time of formation of the Local Government Board, should be consulted. (See Glen's "Law Relating to Public Health," 6th ed. p. 263.)

6. The Nuisance Removal Acts.-These Acts include the Nuisance Removal Act for England, 1855 (18 and 19 Vict. c. 121); an Act to amend the Acts for the Removal of Nuisances and the Prevention of Diseases (23 and 24 Vict. c. 77); the Nuisance Removal Act for England (Amendment Act, 1863 (26 and 27 Vict. c. 117); the Nuisances Removal Act (No. 1), 1866 (29 and 30 Vict. c. 41); and the Sanitary Act, 1866 (29 and 30 Vict. c. 90). These Acts contain the greater number of the statutory provisions which affect the duties of a Medical Officer of Health.

The Nuisance Removal Act, 1855, gives a categorical definition of the word "nuisances." It provides (sec. 8) that this word shall include (a) any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; (b) any pool, ditch, gutter, watercourse, privy, urinal, cesspool, drain, or ashpit, so foul as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; (c) any animal so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; and (d) any accumulation or deposit which is a nuisance or injurious to health, provided that the accumulation be not necessary for effectually carrying on any

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business or manufacture, and not have been kept longer than is necessary for the purpose of such business or manufacture.

The definition of the word "nuisances" here given was considerably extended by the Sanitary Act, 1866, as will presently be shown.

By sec, 11 of the Nuisance Removal Act, 1855, the Sanitary Authority is given power of entry to themselves or their officer, who for several purposes of the provision may be the Medical Officer of Health, (1) to ground proceedings in respect of nuisances; (2) to examine premises where nuisances exist; and (3) to remove or abate a nuisance in certain circumstances, and to inspect or examine any carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, or flour, under the powers and for the purposes of this Act.

With reference to sec. 13 of the Act, he may have to advise as to the sufficiency of privy accommodation, of means of drainage and ventilation, of the habitability and of the purification and disinfection of premises, and on the cleanly and wholesome keeping of animals, and of such other matters relating to nuisances which may be included in a justice's order for their abatement.

Under sec. 27 of this Act he may have to certify as to nuisances arising in cases of noxious trades, businesses, processes, or manufactures; and under seo. 29 he may be required to certify as to any house being so overcrowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants.

The Nuisances Removal Act, 1863, amends the Nuisances Removal Act for England, 1855, with respect to the seizure of diseased and unwholesome meat. This Act (sec, 2) gives to the Medical Officer of Health power at all reasonable times to inspect and examine any animal, carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables, corn, bread, or flour exposed for sale, or deposited in any place for the purpose of sale or of preparation for sale, and intended for the food of man, and of seizing and examining the same in order to be dealt with by a justice, if the foods named shall appear to him to be diseased, or unsound or unwholesome, or unfit for the food of man.

The Sanitary Act, 1866, of the different Acts which have been referred to, contains the most numerous provisions affecting the