The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-02-26
THE HEALTH LAW.
Reported by the Com
mittee ON Legal Affairs.

AASS3AA
Heart Failure Not to be Returned Cause
of Death.-RuIes for the Trans portation
of Bodies of Deceased Persons.-Other
New Features.
Augusta. February s25. The bill
amending the health law was reported
Saturday afternoon from the committee
on legal affairs. The bill contains some of
the provisions of the bill originally in
troduced by Secretary Young of the State
Board of Health and some from the bill
put in by City Clerk Dyer of Portland,
notably that preventing the returning of
heart failure as sole cause of death.
The changes made in the law by the
present bill are as follows:
Section is amended to provide that a
PHYSICIANS certificate of death mast be
forwarded to the clerk of the town or
city where the deceased person died.
Section 5 is amended TO provide that
where person has died without medical
attendance, the town clerk may issue
certificate of death and permit for burial
upon information from the relatives or
persons in attendance on the deceased
I" or from any other source" the last
clause being new.
Section is amended to provide that
an internent or disinterment shall not
be made with out permit from the city
or town in which the deceased person
died.
Section 16 is amended to read as fol-
lows: aft any person shall wilfully
neglect or refuse to perform any duty
imnosed upon him by che provisions of
this act, il shall be misdemeanor and
he shall be fined not more than 500 for
each offense, for the use of the town in
which the offense occurred, and 1t shall
he the duty of the State registrar TO en-
force this section as far as comes within
mis- power and when the State registrar
knows or has good reason to believe that
any penalty or forfeiture under this act
has been incurred, he shall at his dis
cretion forthwith give notice thereof in
writing to the county attorney OF the
county in which such penalty or forfeit
ure has occurred, which notice shall
state as near as may be the time of such
neglect, the name of the person or per
sons mourning the penalty or forfeiture
and such other facts relating TO the de-
fault of duty as said State registrar may
have been able to learn, and upon re-
ceipt of such notice the county attorney
shall prosecute the defaulting person or
persons.
Section II as amended fixes the fee of
town clerk and physicians at Is and %
cents respectively for making returns,
and 25 cents for cases where the town
clerk has to collect the inform alton.
The law is amended by adding tie fol-
lowing new sections:
Section 10. A physician who has at
tended a person during his last illness
shall, when requested, forthwith furnish
to ,Ao%f In
the best of his knowledge and belief, the
name of the deceased, his age, the dig
ease of which ne died, and the date OF
his death and a physician or midwife
who has attended at the birth OF child
dying immediately thereafter, or at the
birth, of a still born child shall, when re-
quested, forthwith furnish for reglstra-
ton a certificate stating to the best OF
his knowledge and belief the fact that
dead. It shall be misdemeanor for any
person to make a false return in regard
to amy birth or death
Section %, which provides that births
marriages and deaths IL unincorporated
places shall be recorded in the nearest
incorporate place.
Section 81. The clerk of each town
SHALL on the first Monday of each month.
make certified copy of the name OF all
deaths and births recorded in the books
of said town during the previous month
whenever the deceased person or the
parents of the child born were resident
Of any other town in this State at the
time of said death or birth, or whenever
they were recently resident in any other
town, or wherever the remains OF any
deceased person have been carried to any
other town for burial; and shall trans
nit said certified copies TO the clerk OF
the town in which said deceased person
OF parents were resident at or near the
time of said birth or death or to which
the remains of such deceased person have
been carried Tor burial stating, in addi
tion to the name of the street and the
number of the house and if anywhere
such deceased person or parents sc
resided whenever the same can he ascer
tanned, and the clerk so receiving such
certified copies shall record the same ir
the books kept for recording deaths Oh
births. Such certified copies shall be
made upon blanks to be furnished fol
that purpose by the registrar of vita
statistics.
Section %. No body OF deceased per
son shall be removed from or into the
limits of any town in this State unless
there shall be attached to the coffin OF
case containing such body written OIL
printed permit signed by the clerk of the
town in which such deceased person died
of which such person died and the town
j which such person is to be buried
and further certifying, in case said dis
ease or cause of death appears by said
permit to have been cholera, yellow
lever, diphtheria, typhus fever, typhoid
fever, scarlet fever, small poX or Other
pestilential disease, that said body is en-
closed in an air tight coffin or case her
medically sealed; but the clerk shall moi
give permit for the removal into any
other town of the body of any person
who has died Of any of the diseases
enumerated in this section until he shall
have received a certificate from the loca
board of health stating that precautioni
against infections satisfactory to sale
board have been observed. Such permit
shall enable said deceased person to h,
buried in any town in this State othe
than the one in which said person is Il
be buried. 1t is further provided that
certificate of death giving heart failur
as the only cause Of death shall not b.
deemed sufficient upon which to issue
burial permit and such certificate mus
he returned to the physician who mad
it for the proper correction and definition
If the body of a deceased person il
brought into this State from withou