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DIVISIONS OF THIS REPORT.

GENERAL DUTIES OF THE BOARD. -DIVISIONS OF THIS REPORT.

Besides the special reports required of this Board by the last Legislature, and the general duties of administration and supervision imposed by the General Statute above cited. (chap. 79-80 of the Public Statutes), certain general duties are imposed, in respect to a yearly report, in sect. 3 of chap. 79; the language of the law being as follows:

"It shall embody in its report a properly classified and tabulated statement of the receipts and expenses of the Board, and of each of the several institutions named above for the said year, and a corresponding classified and tabulated statement of their estimates for the year ensuing, with its opinion as to the necessity or expediency of appropriations in accordance with said estimates; but this provision shall not apply to estimates for the ordinary expenses of lunatic hospitals. The report shall also present a concise review of the work of the several institutions for the year preceding, with such suggestions and recommendations as to them, and the charitable, reformatory, and sanitary interests of the State, as may be deemed expedient.”

The so-called receipts of the Board have already been stated. Its expenses and those of the State institutions will be given, with proper classification and tabulation, in the Appendix. The estimates for the year 1882 will be given in subsequent pages of this Report itself, along with a statement of expenses for the calendar year 1881. The required “review of the work of the several institutions for the year" will be found, in regard to the establishments for the insane, in Part Second, "Lunacy;" in regard to the State Almshouse and State Workhouse, in the pages given to the State Charities; and in regard to the schools and asylums for children, including the Idiot School, in the pages given to the “Children of the State." But the general statements affecting all these State establishments, and the "recommendations as to them and the charitable, reformatory, and sanitary interests of the State," will be found in the preliminary chapter of Part Third or in the concluding portions of this Report; while most of the statistical information concerning the State, municipal, and private institutions of charity and reformation, will be found in the Appendix.

PART FIRST. PUBLIC HEALTH.

PART FIRST.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

GENERAL WORK OF THE YEAR.

THE general sanitary work of the Board during the year 1881 will be stated in this chapter under appropriate headings; and, first, in regard to

1. Noxious and Offensive Trades.

The soap-boiling establishment of Amos Sawyer of Northampton was again brought before the Board upon petition of certain residents of the above-named town, representing that this establishment had become a serious nuisance by reason of offensive smells and the pollution of a neighboring water-course. An examination of the premises was made by the Health Officer of the Board. Defects in the processes of manufacture, and in the methods used for disposal of waste substances, were pointed out; and a promise was made by Mr. Sawyer that changes should be introduced in both these directions, which, it was confidently believed, would abate the existing nuisances. There have, however, been renewed complaints during the past summer; and it seems probable that some additional action will be necessary, either by this Board or by the local Board of Health.

The factory of the Standard Fertilizer Company at Duxbury has also been brought to the notice of the Board by petition of residents of that town, who are not satisfied with the action taken by the local Board of Health. This establishment has been in operation for about a year, and the character of its products is similar to those manufactured by the Bradley Fertilizer Company and the Pacific Guano Com

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pany. Such factories are almost of necessity offensive; and there is no question that this particular establishment has been at times very offensive during the past summer, not only to a large number of people visiting Duxbury as a place of summer resort, but to many who have been for a number of years resident there. The local Board of Health has, however, had a public hearing in reference to this nuisance, and has, in consequence, issued certain orders, which they believe will, if properly carried out, remove all existing causes of complaint; and, until it is apparent that this business cannot be controlled by the health authorities of Duxbury, it is not desirable that action should be taken by the State Board.

A number of small slaughter-houses in various towns of the Commonwealth have been complained of; but none of them have been formally brought to the attention of the Board, except one in Belchertown. This building was found, on inspection, to be too near to dwelling-houses, and not properly constructed for the purposes for which it is used. As the selectmen of Belchertown are ready to take all necessary steps for the safe carrying-on of this business, the matter has been left in their hands.

The great slaughtering-houses in the neighborhood of Boston are still conducted with a very satisfactory success in all their sanitary aspects. They have not been brought to the attention of this Board as subjects of complaint; neither have they, so far as is known to us, required new or unusual local regulations.

2. Water-Supplies.

The pollution of some of the sources of the water-supply of the city of Boston has been almost constantly before the Board during the past year. A complaint was made in the month of February, 1880, under the provisions of chap. 183 of the Statutes of 1878, against certain parties in the town of Natick, alleged to have discharged for a number of years, and to be still in the habit of discharging, into Pegan Brook, impure and deleterious substances; these substances finding their way, by direct flow, into Lake Cochituate. An extended hearing took place; and the Board, on the 5th of June, 1880, ordered the parties complained of to cease and desist

E

THE PEGAN BROOK POLLUTION.

from further draining and emptying human excrement, sewage, and other matter, polluting and fouling the water of Pegan Brook, on and after the fifteenth day of July, 1880.

Thereupon the several parties complained of applied by petition to the Superior Court in Middlesex County for a sheriff's jury to determine whether the order of the Board should be altered, affirmed, or annulled. The city of Boston objected on the ground that the appeal was not properly brought; the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity not having been notified of the appeal, and not having been made parties thereto. But a jury was ordered, and summoned from three towns adjacent to Natick. At this trial the objections of Boston were renewed, and were overruled by the sheriff. The hearing went on, and the jury wholly annulled the order of this Board. The verdicts were returned to the Superior Court, and accepted; but the city of Boston appealed, and the questions of law were fully argued in the Supreme Court. Unfortunately the court sustained the first exception; and, as this rendered it unnecessary for the court to go farther, the main questions were not touched. The petitions having been dismissed, the order of the Board is binding in all these As they are the most important yet brought to the attention of the Board, the above-mentioned opinion of the Supreme Court is herewith given: —

cases.

SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT.

JANUARY LAW TERM, 1881.

RILEY PEBBLES v. CITY OF BOSTON.

Opinion of the Court.

SOULE, J.. -This petition for a jury seeks to have a decree of the State Board of Health, with which the petitioner is dissatisfied, altered or annulled. To this end he made a petition, in due season after service of the decree, to the Superior Court for a jury to try the questions involved in determining whether the decree was a proper one or not. No notice was issued to any one to show cause why the prayer of the petition should not be granted; and the State Board of Health was not made a party to the proceedings, nor in any way notified of the appeal. The city of Boston objected, before the jury were impanelled, that for these reasons the proceedings were void; but the objection was overruled, a trial was had, and a verdict returned which annulled the decree of the Board of Health, and was accepted against the objection of the city of Boston, which appealed to this court. The question for consideration is, whether the

OPINION OF THE SUPREME COURT.

State Board of Health ought not in some way to have been made a party to the proceedings, or informed of the appeal from its decision.

The State Board of Health was created by the Stat. of 1869, chap. 420. Its chief duty, as stated in the statute, was to take cognizance of the interests of health and life among the citizens of this Commonwealth. It was required to elect a secretary. The Stat. of 1878, chap. 183, gave to this Board, in addition to its other duties and powers, the supervision of all rivers, streams, and ponds used by any city or town as sources of watersupply, except the Merrimack, Connecticut, and Concord Rivers, and made it its duty to examine the same from time to time, and inquire what pollutions exist and their causes; and authorized it, whenever such source of supply has been polluted in any of the ways forbidden by sects. 1 and 2 of the statute, and in the judgment of the Board the public health requires it, to order any person or corporation to desist from violating the law, and to remedy the pollution; first giving the person or corporation an opportunity to be heard. The action of the Board may be either the result of its own observation and discoveries in the investigations called for by the statute, or it may be taken in consequence of an application by a city or town (sect. 4). Any person aggrieved by an order of the Board may appeal therefrom, and shall, within three days from the service thereof on him, apply to the Superior Court or some justice thereof for a jury. Otherwise his right of appeal is gone, except in those cases in which the right is preserved for thirty days, when the person aggrieved, by mistake of law or fact or by accident, omits to appeal and apply for a jury within three days after service of the order (Stat. 1865, chap. 263). This court or any justice thereof, in term time or vacation, has power to issue an injunction to enforce the orders of the Board (Stat. 1878, chap. 183, sect. 5). And during the pendency of the appeal the pollution against which the order has issued "shall not be continued contrary to the order of said Board" (sect. 6).

It is clear from these provisions of law that the proceedings instituted by the person aggrieved by an order of the Board must begin with an appeal from the order. They are not in the nature of independent original proceedings, but have their foundation in an appeal. The action of the Board of Health, whether taken on its own motion as the result of its voluntary investigations, or pursuant to an application by a city or town, is judicial in its character; and an order made by the Board, and not appealed from, has the binding force and effect of a judgment by a tribunal of competent jurisdiction. In the case of ordinary judicial proceedings an appeal can be taken only by filing with the clerk of the court a notice of appeal, or otherwise informing the tribunal appealed from that the party aggrieved intends to avail himself of his right to obtain the judgment of a higher tribunal. If this is not done, there is nothing to prevent the enforcement of the judgment by the appropriate process, and the party aggrieved has no means of showing to the appellate tribunal that he is rightfully before it, and so his right is lost.

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