pass examinations in their respective departments of study. In the Universities of Austria it was obligatory to attend a prescribed number of lectures in each year, and at the end of the course pass examinations.

The candidate has to answer nine questions on each subject,— three in the preparatory examination, Vorpruefung; three in the public examination, Hauptpruefung; and three in writing, Schriftliche Pruefung.

If a student did not give satisfactory answers in one of the subjects, although he might have passed a good examination in all other subjects, he is obliged to go through the whole course again. Any student who fails to give satisfactory answers on one or the other subject, for three successive years, is expelled as unfit for the medical profession; and that may happen after the first or even the fourth course, and when the poor student has spent all his property.

One of my classmates, a good, industrious fellow, failed for three years in the examination of anatomy. He entreated the professor to save him from expulsion, and, with tears in his eyes, said, "Dear professor, if I am expelled, I know not what to do unless I kill myself." He received the stern reply,-"If you cannot do otherwise, better that you should kill yourself than to be allowed to practice medicine, and injure or kill hundreds of others."

In 1848, when we struggled for more liberal conditions, a petition for freedom in teaching and learning,-Lern und Lehrfreiheit, was sent to Emperor Francis of Austria. That clever man said, "I grant you everything," and for a few months in that eventful year we felt as if we had it all our own way. Emperors, kings, aristocrats, and priests were frightened because the "German Michel" was awake. They were fully as yielding and as extremely polite as some of our political candidates before elections; but after a few months of our happy vision, the despotic and arbitrary conditions were reinstated, because they are a necessity for the maintenance and propagation of monarchy, aristocracy, and priestcraft. But when reason, science, justice, honesty, and modesty are universally developed and appreciated, vanity, selfishness, monarchy, aristocracy, priestcraft, and quackery must become conditions of the past.

The institutions and regulations of state medicine as enacted in Germany have many excellent points. Let us hope that they may be adopted in this country. But in a despotic country they are likely to be arbitrary and compulsory, while in a free nation. they will be educational and optional; for it is under the conditions of liberty that science does the most good for humanity. The establishment of the United States board of health, and state boards of health in twenty-seven states, are good commencements, and when all local boards of health, physicians, and intelligent people coöperate for better sanitary measures, the beneficial parts of state medicine will be adapted to this best institution among civilized nations-the United States of America.

COMMON LAW CITATIONS RELAT

ING TO NUISANCES.

BY IRVING A. WATSON, M. D., CONCORD, N. H.

No person has a right to use his property in such a manner as to injure another. Upon this principle is based the law which protects persons and communities against nuisances.

Public nuisances are such as are general in their operation, and "result from a violation of public right, and, producing no special injury to one more than another of the people, may be said to have a common effect, and to produce a common damage.”

The courts take cognizance not only of nuisances affecting the public health, but also of that which interferes with the physical comfort and well-being of the people. To constitute a nuisance, it is not necessary that the offensive trade, or business, or condition under consideration should endanger the health of the people in the vicinity. Ashbrook v. Commonwealth, 1 Bush (Ky.) 139; Catlin v. Velentine, 9 Paige, C. R. 575.

"In order to render a person liable for a public nuisance by carrying on a noxious trade or maintaining anything that produces noxious smells, it is not necessary that the smells should be injurious to health. It is sufficient if they are of such an offensive character as to be materially offensive to the senses, and such as impair the physical comfort of those who come within their sphere." Wood on Nuisances, sec. 76.

The fact that trade, manufacture, or other business is well conducted, and as little annoyance made as possible by the same, does not prevent its being a nuisance, if it annoys or injures the health of any or all persons in the immediate vicinity. Moses v. State, 58 Ind. 185.

A business set up and carried on in a quiet dwelling neighborhood, and by its noise unreasonably interferes with the calm enjoyment of the vicinity, and perhaps safety of property, is a nuisance which may be restrained by injunction. Wallace v.

Aver, 10 Phila. (Pa.) 356.

"Any trade or business, however lawful, which, from the place and manner in which it is carried on, materially injures the property of others, or affects their health, or renders the enjoyment of life physically uncomfortable, is a nuisance which it is the duty of the court to restrain." Stewart v. Taylor, 5 C. E. Green 417.

The distinction between nuisances in fact and certain minor or individual conditions which are offensive only by reason of personal idiosyncracy should be kept in view. "The law takes care that lawful and useful business shall not be put a stop to on account of every trifling or imaginary annoyance, such as may offend the taste or disturb the nerves of a fastidious or overrefined person. But, on the other hand, it does not allow any one, whatever his circumstances or condition may be, to be driven from his home, or to be compelled to live in positive discomfort, although caused by a lawful and useful business carried on in his. vicinity. Ross v. Butler, 4 C. E. Green 298.

What is or is not a nuisance is a judicial question to be determined by the courts. Statutes created by legislation cannot determine questions of fact and law; but decisions are so numerous, under common law, covering questions of nuisances as they ordinarily appear, that an abatement of the same may usually be secured short of litigation.

"Nuisances are of various kinds, agreeing in nothing but the common character of being annoying and injurious to the community." * State v. Noyes, 30 R. 295. Some things may be nuisances only under special circumstances and at special times. It may be that an existing thing or condition is a nuisance under common law, or it may be made a nuisance by statute. For instance, a statute making bowling-alleys situated within twenty-five rods of a dwelling-house nuisances is not unconstitutional. State v. Noyes, 30 R. 279.

WHO RESPONSIBLE FOR NUISANCES?

It would seem that the person or party creating a nuisance is not always solely responsible for the same. To assist or encourage others to create or maintain a nuisance is to become accessory by participating in an unlawful act, consequently to be a party to the guilt.

The principle is maintained (Addison on Torts) that "a landlord of premises on which a nuisance exists is responsible if the nuisance existed at the time he let them or relet them, or continued the tenancy after he had power of determining it."

The same writer says: "The action may be brought against all the persons doing or ordering the doing of a wrongful act, as well as against the occupier of the land on which the nuisance exists; but instead of bringing his act against all jointly, the plaintiff may, as we have seen, sue one or more of them, at his election."

"It is not necessary, in order to charge a person with criminal liability for a nuisance, that he should commit the particular act that creates the nuisance; it is enough if he contributes thereto by his act either directly or remotely." Wood on Nuisances, sec. 31.

NUISANCES AFFECTING WATER AND AIR.

The right of all persons to pure air, unpolluted water, and uncontaminated soil is a natural inheritance. This right is protected and maintained by the law.

"The collection of water in artificial ponds or trenches, or the setting back of water by means of dams or other artificial devices, whereby the water becomes stagnant and emits unpleasant odors, or unwholesome or injurious gases. is a great nuisance, and equally as actionable or indictable as are furnaces for the smelting of lead, copper, or other substances that send out destructive or injurious vapors." Wood on Nuisances, sec. 487.

"A mill-dam becomes a nuisance when it obstructs the water to such an extent that it overflows its banks and the surrounding country, and stagnates and becomes dead in pools, whereby the air along the highways and around the dwellings is infected with