§ 2. State department of health; commissioner of public health. The state department of health and the office of commissioner of health are hereby created. The

commissioner of health shall be the head of such department. Such commissioner shall be appointed by the gov ernor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, and shall be a physician, a graduate of an incorporated medical college, of at least ten years' experience in the actual practice of his profession, and of skill and experience in public health duties and sanitary science. The term of office of the commissioner first appointed hereunder shall expire on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and four, and the term of office of the commissioner thereafter appointed shall be four years, beginning on the first day of January of the year in which he is appointed. Within twenty days after the amendment of this section takes effect, the governor shall appoint a commissioner of health as herein provided and upon the appointment and qualification of such commissioner, the terms of the members of the state board of health and the secretary of such board shall expire.

§ 3. Compensation of officers and employes. The commissioner of health shall receive an annual salary of three thousand five hundred dollars, and his expenses actually and necessarily incurred in the performance of his official duties, to be paid monthly on the audit of the comptroller. He may employ such clerical and other assistants as are necessary for the proper performance of the powers and duties of the department, and fix their compensation within the amount appropriated therefor by the legislature. He shall designate, in writing, one of his assistants who shall possess the powers and perform the duties of commissioner of health during his absence or inability to act, or during a vacancy in the office.

§ 4. General powers and duties of commissioner.-The commissioner of health shall take cognizance of the interests of health and life of the people of the state, and of all matters pertaining thereto. He shall make inquiries in respect to the cause of disease, especially epidemics and inves tigate the source of mortality, and the effect of localities, employments and other conditions, upon the public health. He shall obtain, collect and preserve such information relating to mortality, disease and health as may be useful in the discharge of

state engineer and the health officer of the port of New York, and three members to be designated and appointed by the governor, one of whom shall be a health commissioner of the board of health of New York city, and two to hold office for three years each, who shall be members or commissioners, or who shall have been members or commissioners of health of regularly constituted and organized boards of health of the other cities of the state. The appointment to or acceptance of office under this section shall not be deemed to vacate any office held by the person appointed in any board of health of any city of the state.

§ 3. Officers; meetings; by-laws.-The board shall elect annually from its members a president. It shall elect a person of skill and experience in public health duties and sanitary science, to be the secretary and chief executive officer of the board. He shall hold office for three years, but may be removed by a majority vote of the board for cause after a hearing had. He shall keep a record of the acts and proceedings of the board, perform and superintend the work prescribed for the state board in this chapter, as directed by said board and discharge such other duties as the board may direct. He shall receive an annual salary of four thousand five hundred dollars and his necessary expenses. No other member of the board shall receive any compensation, except his actual traveling or other expenses. The board shall employ such clerical and other assistance as it may require and for the payment of which the legislature may have made provision. The board shall have an annual meeting at Albany in the month of May, and meetings during the year whenever deemed necessary by it, and as often at least as once in three months. Five members shall constitute a quorum. The board shall adopt by-laws for the transaction of its business, and provide for the appointment of committees, and delegate to them power and authority to do the work committed to them. The commissioner § 4. General powers and duties of board. The state board of health shall take cognizance of the interests of health and life of the people of the state, and of all matters pertaining thereto. It he shall make inquiries in respect to the cause of disease, especially epidemics, and investigate the source of mortality, and the effect of localities, employments and other conditions, upon the public health. shall obtain, collect and preserve such information relating to mortality, disease and health as may be use

ful in the discharge of its duties or may contribute to the promotion of health or the security of life in the state. It may issue subpenas, compel the attendance of witnesses, administer oaths to witnesses and compel them to testify in any matter or proceeding before it, or any member of the board authorized by its order to hear or investigate any such matter or proceeding, and a witness may be required to attend and give testimony in a county where he resides or has a place of business, without the payment of any fees. The state board of health may reverse or modify an order, regulation, by-law or ordinance of a local board of health concerning a matter which in its judgment, affects the public health beyond the territory over which such local board has jurisdiction; and may exercise exclusive juris diction over all lands acquired by the state for sanitary purposes. Every member of such state board and every person authorized by it so to do, may, without fee or hindrance, enter, examine and survey all grounds, erections, vehicles, structures, apartments, buildings and places.

5. Duties with respect to vital statistics.-The board shall have the general supervision of the state system of registration of births, marriages, deaths and prevalent diseases, and shall maintain at the capital a state bureau of vital statistics. It shall prescribe and prepare the necessary methods and forms for obtaining and preserving such statistics, and to insure the prompt and faithful registration of the same in the several municipalities and in the state bureau. It shall from time to time recom. mend such forms and such amendments of law as shall be deemed necessary for the thorough organization and efficiency of regis tration of vital statistics throughout the state, as supervised by such board, the clerical duties and safekeeping of the state bureau shall be provided for by the comptroller who shall also provide and furnish such stationery as such board shall require in the discharge of its duties. If defects exist in any registration under the supervision of a local board of health, the state board shall notify the local board that such defects must be amended and prevented within one month from the date of the notice. If such defects are not so amended or prevented, the state board shall take control of such registration and the record thereof, and enforce the rules and regulations in regard thereto, and secure a complete registration in such municipality, at the same cost to the municipality as if done by the local board, and

such control shall continue until the local board satisfies the state board that it will make such record and registry complete, as required by law. A copy of any record or registry in the office of the state board, duly certified by the president or secretary of the board to be a true copy thereof, shall be presumptive evidence in all courts and places of the facts therein stated. The board shall prescribe and prepare the necessary methods, forms and rules regulating the issue of transfer permits, by local boards of health, for the transportation of corpses for burial outside of the county where death occurred and the use of such permits. It shall require a coupon to be attached to every such permit to be detached and preserved by every common carrier, or person in charge of any vessel, car or vehicle, to whom any such corpse shall be delivered for transportation.

§ 6. Nuisances.-The state board of health shall have all necessary powers to make examinations into nuisances, or questions affecting the security of life and health in any locality. Whenever required by the governor of the state, it shall make such an examination and shall report the results thereof to the governor, within the time prescribed by him therefor. The report of every such examination, when approved by the governor, shall be filed in the office of the secretary of state, and the governor may declare the matters public nuisances, which may be found and certified in any such report to be nuisances, and may order them to be changed, abated or removed as he may direct. Every such order shall be presumptive evidence of the existence of such nuisance; and the governor may, by a precept under his hand and official seal, require the district attorney, sheriff and other officers of the county where such nuisance is maintained, to take all necessary measures to execute such order and cause it to be obeyed, and the acts of any such county officer in the abatement of any such nuisance, reasonable or necessary for such abatement, shall be lawful and justifiable and the order of the governor a sufficient protection to such officer. The expense of such abatement shall be paid by the municipality where the nuisance occurs, and shall be a debt recoverable by such municipality of all persons, maintaining it or assisting in its maintenance, and a lien and charge upon the lands upon which the nuisance is maintained, which may be enforced by a sale of such lands to satisfy the same.

§ 7. Overflow of water from the canals.-Whenever water

escaping or discharged from any of the canals of the state, through water gates, spillways or otherwise, shall overflow adjacent lands, or any creek or stream receiving such waters, or collect in stagnant pools along the canal or any such creek or stream to such an extent as to cause disease or sickness to the inhabitants of the vicinity, any three of such inhabitants may make a written complaint thereof under oath to the state board of health, setting forth the extent of the injury to the public health, so far as is within their knowledge, and the length of time the disease or sickness has existed, which shall be accompanied by a verified certificate of a practicing physician of the vicinity, stating the facts known to him, pertaining to the allegations of the complaint. Upon receipt of such complaint, the state board of health shall forthwith examine into the facts and circumstances therein set forth, and may call on the state engineer to make such surveys as they may require for their information, who shall make the same without delay, and if such board shall be satisfied that such disease or sickness exists, and is caused by waters of the canal escaping or discharged therefrom, it shall so report to the superintendent of public works, without unnecessary delay, who shall forthwith abate the cause of such disease or sickness.

§ 8. Employment of local boards and experts.--Whenever requested by the state board of health, any city board of health in this state may appoint one of its members as its representative upon the state board during the examination of any nuisance, or for the purpose of determining whether a public nuisance exists, and such representative shall have power to take part in such examination, and shall have a seat in the state board and be entitled to take part in all of its deliberations during such examination, but without right to vote. The state board may from time to time employ competent persons to render sanitary service, and make or supervise practical and scientific investigations and examinations requiring expert skill, and prepare plans and reports relative thereto.

§ 9. Examination and inspection of public works.—All persons having the control, charge or custody of any public structure, work or ground, or of any plan, description, outline, drawing or chart thereof or relating thereto, made, kept or controlled by or under any public authority, shall permit and facilitate the examination, inspection and copying thereof by any member of