Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/108

Rh 96 P U B P U B phrase) "geographize " a country, Ptolemy deals with this part of his subject in so careless a manner as to be often worse than useless. Even in the case of a country so well known as Gaul the few notices that he gives of the great rivers that play so important a part in its geography are disfigured by some astounding errors ; while he does not notice any of the great tributaries of the Rhine, though mentioning an obscure streamlet, otherwise unknown, because it happened to be the boundary between two Roman provinces. The revival of the study of Ptolemy's work after the Middle Ages and the influence it exercised upon the progress of geography have been described in the article MAP (vol. xv. p. 520). His Geographia was printed for the first time in a Latin translation, accompanied with maps, in 1478, and numerous other editions followed in the latter part of the 15th and earlier half of the 16th century, but the Greek text did not make its appearance till 1533, when it was published at Basel in 4to, edited by the celebrated Erasmus. All these early editions, however, swarm with textual errors, ^nd are wholly worthless for critical purposes. The same may be said of the edition of Bertius (Gr. and Lat., Leyden, 1618, typ. Elzevir), which was long the standard library edition of the work. It contains a new set of maps drawn by Mercator, as well as a fresh series (not intended to illustrate Ptolemy) by Ortelius, the Roman Itiner- aries, including the Tabula Peutingeriana, and much other miscellaneous matter. The first attempt at a really critical edition was made by Wilberg and Grashof (4to, Essen, 1842), but this unfortunately was never completed. The edition of Nobbe (3 vols. 18mo, Leipsic, 1843) presents the best Greek text of the whole work as yet available and has a useful index. But by far the best edition, so far as completed, is that published in Didot's Bibliotheca Classicorum Grsecorum (Paris, 1883), edited by Dr C. Miiller, with a Latin trans- lation and a copious commentary, geographical as well as critical. The first part, which is all that has yet appeared, contains only the first three books, without the Prolegomena, which will be anxiously expected by all students of Ptolemy. (E. H. B.) PUBLIC HEALTH. State medicine as an organized department of administration is entirely of modern growth. By the common law of England the only remedy for any act or omission dangerous to health was an action for damages or an indictment for nuisance. (See NUISANCE.) At the same time the jurisdiction of the commissioners of sewers acted to a certain extent as a preventive means. Commissions of sewers were granted by the crown, at first in virtue of the general prerogative, afterwards under the provisions of numerous statutes, the earliest dating from 1427 (6 Hen. VI. c. 5). The powers of the com- missioners included the removal of obstructions in rivers, the making of fosses and drains, <fcc. Their jurisdiction, where still existing, is expressly preserved in the modern Public Health Acts. The indictment for nuisance still lies for many offences which are now punishable in a summary manner under the powers of recent legislation. But for a long time it was the only, not as now a concurrent, remedy. Its obvious defect is that proceedings can only be taken after the mischief has been done. Old examples of nuisances dangerous to health and punishable at common law are the keeping of swine in a town, the dividing of a house in a town so that by reason of overcrowding it would be more dangerous in time of sickness or plague, and the carrying on of offensive trades, such as the melting of tallow. The court leet seems to have had some jurisdic- tion in sanitary matters, confined to the prevention of nuisances and the determination of the quality of provi- sions within its local limits. At a comparatively early date statutes were passed dealing with matters for which the common law had provided too cumbrous a remedy The attention of parliament, though but to a slight extent, was directed to the health of London as early as the Statute of the City of London in 1285 (13 Edw. I. st. 5). The earliest legislative enactment affecting the public health generally appears to be 12 Ric. II. c. 13, 1388, forbid- ding the deposit of offensive matter in rivers and other waters, as well in the city of London as in other cities. Acts of a similar character were from time to time passed to meet particular offences, such as 4 and 5 Hen. VII. c. 3, by which no butcher was to slaughter cattle in London or other walled towns. The plague called forth the Act of 1 Jac. I. c. 31, which made it a capital offence for an infected person to go abroad after being commanded by the proper authority to keep his house. The Act for the rebuilding of London after the great fire, 19 Car. II. c. 3, contained various provisions as to the height of houses, breadth of streets, construction of sewers, and pro- hibition of noisome trades. In 1832 the fear of cholera led to 2 Will. IV. c. 10, empowering the privy council to take certain preventive measures against the spread of the disease. Numerous local Acts gave the authorities of the more important towns power over the public health. To this day London is governed by separate legislation. The Towns Improvement Act, 1847, contained provisions of a sanitary kind for incorporation in local Acts. But it was not until as recently as 1848 that a general Public Health Act, embracing the whole of England (except the metro- polis), was passed. The Public Health Act, 1848, created a general board of health as the supreme authority in sanitary matters. The Local Government Act, 1858, amended the Act of 1848, chiefly in the direction of greater local sanitary control. By an Act immediately preceding the Act of 1858 the general board of health was superseded partly by the home office, partly by the privy council. The Local Government Board, the present central authority, was created in 1871 by 34 and 35 Viet, c. 70. The president of the Local Government Board is usually a member of the cabinet. Numerous other Acts dealing with public health were passed from 1849 to 1874. Finally in 1875 the existing law was digested into the Public Health Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Viet. c. 55). 1 The tendency of sanitary legislation has been to place local sani- tary regulations in the hands of the local authorities, subject to a general superintendence by a Government department. The Act of 1875, which registers the results of this tendency, is a con- solidating not an amending Act, and did not materially alter the law. It is impossible in this place to do more than give a short notice of its comprehensive provisions. For the purposes of the Act England, except the metropolis, is divided into urban and rural sanitary districts, subject respectively to the jurisdiction of urban and rural sanitary authorities. The urban authority is either the corporation of a borough, improvement commissioners, or a local board, according to circumstances. A district becomes subject to a local board at the instance of either the Local Government Board or the owners and ratepayers of the district. The local board is elected by the owners and ratepayers. It must be elected before 15th April in every year. The members hold office for three years, one-third retiring every year. The Oxford local board is governed by regulations peculiar to itself, giving the university a large pro- portion of members. Rural districts are conterminous with poor- law unions, exclusive of any urban district. The guardians of the poor form the rural authority. There is a port sanitary authority in seaport towns. (See QUARANTINE.) The jurisdiction of a local authority is both preventive and remedial. The matters falling under this jurisdiction include (1) sewers, with certain exceptions, among which come sewers under the authority of commissioners of sewers, (2) scavenging and cleansing streets, (3) water-supply, (4) cellar-dwellings and lodging-houses, (5) nuisances, 2 (6) offensive 1 For the history of sanitary legislation in England, see the Report of the Royal Sanitary Commission, 1869 ; M. D. Chalmers, Local Government, ch. vii. ; Stephen, Commentaries, vol. iii. bk. iv. pt. iii. ch. ix. ; G. A. F.. Fitzgerald, The Public Health Act, 1875, Introd. 2 The list of nuisances which may be dealt with summarily under the Act is as follows : " (1) any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health ; (2) any pool, ditch, gutter, water- course, privy, urinal, cesspool, drain, or ashpit so foul or in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health ; (3) any animal so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health ; (4) any accumulation or deposit which is a nuisance or injurious to health ; (5) any house or part of a house so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates, whether or not members of the same family ; (6) any factory, workshop, or bakeshop (not already under the opera- tion of any general Act for the regulation of factories or bakehouses) not kept in a cleanly state, or not ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless as far as practicable any gases, vapours, dust, or other impurities generated in the course of the work carried on therein, that are a nuisance or injurious to health, or so overcrowded while work is carried on as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of those employed therein ; (7) any fireplace or furnace which does not, as far as practicable, consume the smoke arising from the combustibles used therein, and which is used for working engines by steam, or in any mill, factory, dyehouse, brewery, bakehouse, or gaswork, or in any manufacturing or trade process whatsoever ; (8) any chimney (not being the chimney of a private dwelling-house) sending forth black smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance." In relation to these statutory nuisances it is provided that no penalty is to be inflicted in respect of any accumulation or deposit if it is necessary for business purposes and if effectual means have been taken for preventing injury therefrom to the public health, or in respect of a nuisance from uncon-