1866.] The Sanitary Act of 1866. 497 
either by Corporations, Societies, or private individuals, then the 
people of this country will richly deserve the severest calamities 
that can befall them. Hitherto they have had the justification of 
ignorance ; now that is withdrawn from them, and the neglect of 
sanitary precautions becomes unpardonable. 
The new Bill contains, briefly stated, the following provisions : 
It enables “Sewer Authorities” to form themselves into 
Committees and to avail themselves of the assistance of ratepayers, 
by adding intelligent professional or other citizens to their number ; 
to form special drainage districts for the purposes of the Sewage 
Utilization Act, and to collect the needful rate in such districts. 
It gives greater facilities for connecting outlying places with main 
sewers: Provides powers for the authorities to obtain a proper 
water supply. 
With regard to nuisances: If the Nuisance Authority fail to 
discharge its duty, it gives power to the Home Secretary to employ 
the Chief Officer of Police, to “institute any proceeding which the 
nuisance authority of such place might institute with respect to the 
removal of nuisances.” 
It enables any ten inhabitants of a place to compel the removal 
of a nuisance, by a requisition to the authorities; with the same 
effect as would a certificate from the Medical Officer of Health. 
It defines nuisances; overcrowded houses, factories, bakehouses 
which are uncleanly or so ill-ventilated as to render gases, vapours, 
dust or other impurities generated therein dangerous to health, or 
which are overcrowded. Smoky chimneys. 
It defines the duties of “Nuisance Authorities.” They must 
make periodical inspections for the purpose of enforcing the Act, 
must compel owners or occupiers of houses to cleanse and disinfect 
them and any articles they may contain, “wpon the certificate of 
any legally qualified practitioner” that such cleansing and disin- 
fection will tend to prevent or check infectious or contagious 
disease, and the Act gives them summary powers in case of the 
default of parties refusing to cleanse. It enables them to provide 
hospitals, houses for the disinfection of bedding, &c. &c., carriages 
for persons suffering from infectious diseases. To remove to the 
hospital (with the consent of the superintending body) persons 
suffering from dangérous infectious or contagious diseases. It 
makes it incumbent upon the authorities to remove and bury dead 
bodies.* It enables them to erect mortuaries for the reception of 
bodies to be subjected to post-mortem examination, and gives other 
powers and instructions on the same subject. 
The Act further authorizes “‘ Nuisance Authorities,” with the 
* Cases are not uncommon where the relatives of persons who have died of 
infectious or contagious disease, insist upon retaining the body in the house to the 
danger of their neighbours’ lives. 
