Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/109

Rh P U B P U B 97 trades, (7) unsound meat, (8) infectious diseases and hospitals, (9) prevention of epidemic diseases, (10) mortuaries and (by the Public Health Act, 1879) cemeteries, (11) highways, (12) streets, (13) buildings, (14) lighting, (15) public pleasure-grounds, (16) markets and slaughter-houses, (17) licensing of hackney carriages, horses, and boats. It is to be noticed that jurisdiction in some of these cases is confined to an urban authority. Contracts made by an urban authority, whereof the value or amount exceeds 50, must be in writing, and sealed with the common seal of the authority. Where the contract is of the value or amount of 100 or upwards tenders for its execution must be invited. A local authority has power, subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, to make bye-laws and impose penalties for their breach. The authority must appoint a medical officer and an inspector of nuisances ; if an urban authority, it must in addition appoint a surveyor, clerk, and treasurer. Officers may not contract with a local authority. An urban authority has power to levy a general district rate, a private improvement rate (an additional rate levied in return for some special advantage beyond that obtained by the inhabitants in general), and (in certain cases) a highway rate. The expenses of a rural authority are either general or special, the latter being chiefly the expenses arising from sewerage and water-supply. General expenses are defrayed out of a common fund raised out of the poor rate. Special expenses are a charge upon the contributory places benefited. A local authority may, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, raise loans for the purposes of the Act. The loans arc charged upon the general district rate. Legal proceed- ings under the Act are generally summary. Where proceedings are by action, one month's notice of action must be given where the cause of action is anything done, or intended to be done, or omitted to be done under the provisions of the Act. The action must be brought within six months after the accruing of the cause of action. The local authority and its officers are protected from personal liability for matters done in pursuance of the Act. An appeal from a court of summary jurisdiction lies to quarter sessions. In cases where the local authority decides a question as to liability to expenses, an appeal lies to the Local Government Board. The Local Government Board has power to alter areas and unite dis- tricts, to direct inquiries in relation to any matters concerning the public health in any place, to make provisional orders, and to enforce performance of duty by a defaulting local authority. In addition to the Public Health Act, 1875, there are various Acts incorporated with that Act under the name of the "Sanitary Acts," dealing with similar subjects. These are the Bakehouse Regulation Act (1863), the Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act (1868), the Baths and Washhouses Acts, the Labouring Classes Lodging- House Acts (1851, 1866, 1867). Since 1875 numerous Acts amending and extending the Public Health Act have been passed, dealing with (among other matters) river- pollution, water -supply, hospitals for infectious diseases, nuisance arising from alkali- works, and lodging of fruit- pickers. There is besides a mass of legislation which in fact, if not in name, has for its object the sanitary welfare of the people. It is sufficient to mention the Vaccination Acts, the Factory Acts, the Artisans and Labourers Dwell- ings Acts subsequent to 1868, the Merchant Shipping Acts (insuring the carrying of medicines and antiscorbutics on board ships, the provision of sleeping space for seamen, and the inspection of seamen's lodging-houses), the Adul- teration Acts, and the numerous Burial Acts. In many local Acts notification of infectious disease by the medical man in attendance to the local authority is made com- pulsory, but the legislature has not as yet adopted any general provision of the kind. The scientific aspect of public health does not fall within the scope of the present article ; it has been treated under the title HYGIENK. It is sufficient to say here that the effect of the attention which of late years has been given to the subject is seen in the reduction of the death-rate from 22-23 per thousand in the years 1841-51 to 21'27 for the years 1871-81. London. The metropolis is governed by a series of statutes, some peculiar to itself, others general Acts, repealed as to the rest of England, but specially preserved as to the metropolis by the Public Health Act, 1875. The limits of the metropolis for the sumed smoke if it be proved to the court that the smoke has been consumed as far as practicable and that the fire has been carefully attended to. purposes of public health depend primarily upon the Metropolis Management Act, 1855 (18 and 19 Viet. c. 120, s. 250, schedules A and B). The local authorities are the metropolitan board of works, the vestries and district boards, and (in the city of London) the commissioners of sewers. Asylums and hospitals are administered by the metropolitan asylums board. The water-supply is regulated by the Metropolis Water Acts, 1852 and 1871, gas by the Metro- politan Gas Act, 1860. Scotland. Sanitary legislation occurs as early as the reign of Alexander III. The Statvita Gilde, c. 19, forbn*!o the deposit of dung or ashes in the street, market, or on the banks of the Tweed at Berwick under a penalty of eight shillings. At a later date the Act of 1540, c. 20, enacted that no flesh was to be slain in Edinburgh on the east side of the Leith Wynd ; that of 1621, c. 29, fixed the locality of fleshers and candlemakers. The existing law of public health is contained in the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867 (30 and 31 Viet. c. 101). The local authority is the town council, the police commissioners or trustees, or the parochial board, accord- ing to circumstances. There is no distinction of urban and rural authority. The central authority is the board of supervision con- stituted by 8 and 9 Viet. c. 83. Proceedings by a local authority in cases of nuisance are by summary petition to a sheriff' or a justice (in soma cases only to a sheriff) upon requisition in writing under the hands of ten inhabitants. An appeal lies in cases of sufficient value from the sheriff-substitute to the sheriff and from the sheriff' to the Court of Session. The list of nuisances in the Act differs, but not materially, from that in the English Act. The powers of local authorities in England and Scotland are very similar. There are no provisions as to contracts by local authorities corresponding to those in the English Act. Ireland.' Several Acts of the Irish parliament dealt with specific, nuisances, e.g., 5 Geo. III. c. 15, forbidding the laying of filth in the streets of cities or county towns, and making regulations as to sweeping and scavenging. There were also numerous private Acts dealing with water-supply and the obstruction of watercourses. In 1878 the existing legislation was consolidated by the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 (41 and 42 Viet. c. 52), a close copy of the English Act of 1875. The list of statutory nuisances is the same in both Acts. The urban authority is the corporation, the commissioners, the municipal commissioners, or the town com- missioners, according to circumstances. Ireland has its own local government board. United States. After the Civil War boards of health were estab- lished in the chief cities. Public health is under the control of the local authorities to a greater extent than in England. By the Act of Congress of 25th February 1799 officers of the United States are bound to observe the health laws of the States. A national board of health was created by the Act of 3d March 1879, c. 202. Its main duties are to give advice to local authorities and to cany on investigations in sanitary matters. It has certain jurisdiction in quarantine and in epidemics of a peculiarly dangerous nature. (J. Wf. ) PUBLIC RECORDS. See RECORDS, PUBLIC. PUBLILIUS (less correctly written PUBLIUS) SYRUS, a Latin writer of farces (mimi flourished in the 1st cen- tury B.C. He was a native of Syria and was brought as a slave to Italy, but by his wit and talent he won the favour of his master, who freed and educated him. His farces, in which he acted himself, had a great success in the provincial towns of Italy and at the games given by Caesar in 46 B.C. Publilius appeared on the stage at Rome and received from Caesar himself the prize for a histrionic con- test in which the actor vanquished all his competitors, including the celebrated Laberius. For the rest, we learn from Jerome that in 43 Publilius still enthralled the Roman playgoers. Cicero witnessed with pleasure the exhibition of his plays, and Seneca was a warm admirer of his wise and witty sayings. All that remains of his works is a collection of Sentences (sententisz), a series of moral maxims in iambic and trochaic verse. This collection must have been made at a very early date, since it was known to Aulus Gellius in the 2d century A.D. Each maxim is comprised in a single verse, and the verses are arranged in alphabetical order according to their initial letters. In course of time the collection was interpolated with sentences drawn from other writers, especially from apocryphal writings of Seneca ; the number of genuine verses is about 700. They include many pithy sayings, such as the famous "judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur." The best editions of the Sentences are those of E. Wolfflin (Teubner, 1869) and W. Meyer (Teubner, 1880). XX. 13