The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-10 00:00:00

The New Act on Public Health.

The Act to amend the law relating to the Public
Health, which received the Royal assent on Tues-
day, has just been issued. It contains 69 sections
(with two schedules), and at the present period the
new law is attracting public attention. The act is
to be cited as " The Sanitary Act, 1866." There
are four parts in the statute. The first part relates
to the amendment of the Sewage Utilisation Act of
1865, and is to be construed as one with the recited
act. Any sewer authority is empowered to form
committees, and where the sewer authority of a dis-
trict is a vestry or other body, may, after notice,
form part of the district into a special drainage dis-
trict, for the purpose of the Sewage Utilisation Act,
and a number of inhabitants, not being less-than 20,
may by petition to the Home Secretary bring the
matter under his consideration. Any owner or oc-
cupier of premises within the district of a sewer au-
thority is to be entitled to cause his drains to empty
into the sewers, and the sewers may be used beyond
the district. Provision is made as to the drainage of
houses, and the supply of water. and wells, &c., be-
longing to any place are to vest in the sewer autho-
rity. The second part relates to the amendment of
the Nuisances Removal Acts. In any place within
the jurisdiction of a nuisance authority the police
may enter a house for the removal of a nuisance by
the warrant of a justice of the peace. A requisition
of ten inhabitants is to be equivalent to a medical
certificate as to a nuisance. The word " nuisances"
is to include any house or part of a house so over-
crowded as to be dangerous or prejudicial to the
health of the inmates, or any factory, workshop,
bakehouse, &c. A nuisance authority is to make an
inspection of the district, to ascertain what nuisances
exist calling for abatement, under the powers vested
in it, and to enforce the provisions. A nuisance
authority, on the certificate of any legally qualified
medical practitioner, may order premises to be
cleansed or otherwise disinfected, and to pro-
vide means of disinfection. Carriages may
be provided for the conveyance of infected
persons. "If any person, suffering from any dan-
gerous infectious disorder, Shall enter any public
conveyance, without previously notifying to the
owner or driver thereof that he is so suffering, he
shall, on conviction thereof before any justice, be
liable to a penalty not exceeding £s 7 • and shall also
be ordered by such justice to pay such owner and
driver all the losses and expenses they_may suffer in
carrying into effect the provisions of this Act; and
no owner or driver of any public conveyance shall
he required to convey any person so suffering until
they shall have been first paid a sum sufficient to
cover all such losses and expenses." Sick persons
suffering from any dangerous contagious or infec-
tious disorder being without proper lodging or
accommodation, or in a room occupied by more than
one family, or being on board any ship or vessel,
may be removed on a certificate of a medical practi-
tioner to a proper place. Places for the reception
of dead bodies may be provided at the public ex-
pense, and places for the reception of dead bodies
during a post mortem examination are to be pro-
vided. Power is now given to remove to hospitals
Ipersons brought by ships. A nuisance authority
may require payment of costs and expenses from
owner or occupier, and the occupier paying is to
deduct the same from the rent. In the second part
of the Act, entitled " miscellaneous," in cities and
boroughs or towns the Secretary of State, on the
application of a nuisance authority, is empowered to
make regulations as to lodginghouses,. in fixing the
number of persons who may occupy a house, or part
of a house, which is let in lodgings, or occupied by
members of more than one family, &c. Cellars used as
dwelling-places may be closed by the nuisance autbo-

rity. Hospitals may be founded for the sick. There
are two provinces in the Act which require immedi-
ate publicity. By the 38th section it is enacted that
any person with an infectious disorder, wilfully ex-
posing himself, or any person in charge of sick per-
sons causing such exposure, is to be liable to a
penalty of £5, and by the next section, for letting
houses in which infectious persons have been lodged
without properly disinfecting such places the offender
is liable to a penalty of £2O. There are other pro-
visions to enforce sanitary regulations as to local
boards, burial boards, and other matters, to be
adopted for the preservation of the publich health.
The fourth part of the statute is to be applied to
Ireland, and certain modifications are made for its
adoption in that part of the United Kingdom. The
first schedule has reference to Ireland, and the second
schedule shows the statutes repealed by the present
Act. It came into force from Tuesday, the 7th of
August inst., when it received the Royal assent, and
may be generally adopted as " the Sanitary Act "
of the Session of 18G6.