570 



MISSISSIPPI. 



be entitled to draw from the school fund of 

 his or her county the pro rata amount to which 

 such student would have been entitled had he 

 attended a first-class public school in his own 

 county. Other sections direct the manner in 

 which the system shall be carried out. 



Another act reorganized the State Board 

 of Health, and provided that it shall take cog- 

 nizance of matters of health and life among 

 the people of the State ; make inquiries in 

 respect to the causes of diseases, and especially 

 of epidemics ; and investigate the sources of 

 mortality and the effects of localities, employ- 

 ments, and other conditions upon public health 

 and the causes of disease, and the best means 

 of prevention of disease. The Board is author- 

 ized to require reports and information at such 

 times and of such facts, and generally of such 

 nature and extent, relating to the safety of life 

 and the promotion of health, as its by-laws or 

 rules may provide, from all health officers in 

 the .State, and from all dispensaries, hospitals, 

 asylums, prisons, and schools, and from the 

 managers, principals, and officers thereof, and 

 from all other public institutions, their officers 

 and managers, and lessees and occupants of all 

 places of public resort in the State. It is re- 

 quired to take the general supervision of the 

 State system of registration of births, mar- 

 riages, and deaths. This registration is to be 

 kept by the clerks of circuit courts. Each 

 county is required to have a board of health 

 and a medical adviser or chief health officer, 

 whose duty it shall be to report to the county 

 board of health every matter involving the 

 health of the county ; to examine and report 

 in regard to the ventilation of theatres, city 

 halls, and public buildings generally, in regard 

 to preservation of human life in case of fire ; 

 to make report of matters needing attention 

 in public schools for the preservation of the 

 health of the pupils; to report in regard to 

 any matter calculated to affect injuriously the 

 public health, and to report, generally, in regard 

 to the public health of his county. It shall 

 be the duty of said county health officer to 

 examine drinking water in different localities, 

 and, if impurities be discovered, to make the 

 same known to the public through the county 

 board of health, giving at the same time the 

 means of purifying the same ; and shall report 

 on stagnant pools and other matters that would 

 have a deleterious effect on the water used for 

 domestic purposes, or that would cause malaria 

 or be injurious to public health, whether the 

 same be on private premises or public high- 

 ways or elsewhere; and shall examine and re- 

 port on market-houses and butcher-stalls, and 

 any other matters that may, in the opinion of 

 said health officer, have a tendency to inju- 

 riously affect the public health. And it shall 

 be the duty of the county board of health to 

 report to the board of supervisors such matters 

 as are of importance and require the attention 

 of the board of supervisors, and also to- recom- 

 mend, from time to time, to the board of su- 



pervisors, all measures that in the opinion of 

 the county board of health will tend to prevent 

 epidemic, endemic, or contagious diseases, or 

 that will improve the public health. 



The county boards of health have the power 

 to make all rules deemed needful for enforced 

 vaccination, for compelling reports to the health 

 officer of cholera, yellow fever, scarlet fever, 

 diphtheria, measles, or small-pox, or other con- 

 tagious or infectious diseases ; and said boards 

 of health shall have power to make all rules 

 and regulations that they may deem necessary 

 to prevent the spread of any such diseases, and 

 may cause persons so affected to be separated ; 

 and may order that families or establishments 

 of any kind, where such diseases or any of 

 them are supposed to exist, shall not leave the 

 houses so affected, or shall be quarantined, and 

 may make such rules as they may deem neces- 

 sary for disinfecting premises where such dis- 

 eases are or have been, and for disinfecting 

 clothing or destroying the same ; and any per- 

 son violating such rules, orders, or regulations 

 shall be punished for each offense by fine in 

 any sum not exceeding fifty dollars, or by im- 

 prisonment in the county jail not exceeding one 

 month, or by both such fine and imprisonment. 



Another act created a State Board of Immi- 

 gration, consisting of a Commissioner of Immi- 

 gration, the Secretary of State, and the State 

 Treasurer. 



For the support of the charitable and other 

 institutions of the State the following sums 

 were appropriated for each of the years 1879 

 and 1880: Lunatic Asylum, $60,000; Deaf and 

 Dumb Institution, $8,500 ; Blind Asylum, $7,- 

 500; Alcorn University, $8,000 ; State Normal 

 School, $3,000 ; for general university purposes, 

 $27,000. 



The assessment of real estate is made once 

 in four years for the purposes of taxation. 

 The assessors for 1879 were required to report 

 to the State Auditor the total value of lands 

 assessed in their respective counties. If the 

 aggregate value of lands in such reports was 

 10 per cent, less than the aggregate value as 

 assessed in 1875, then the State tax for 1879 

 was to be fixed at four mills; but if there was 

 not such reduction, the State tax should be three 

 and a half mills. 



The attention of the Legislature was called 

 to the troubles in the southwestern counties of 

 the State, and a committee of investigation was 

 appointed. This body reported that it had in- 

 stituted a rigid inquiry into the causes of the 

 troubles, and its conclusion was that they were 

 due to financial depression, and not to political 

 influence, nor to race antagonism. The parties 

 engaged in them, says the Committee, " have 

 seen their homes and other property pass, 

 under mortgages and deeds of trust, into other 

 hands, with families beggared, the means for 

 their support taken away, want staring them 

 in the face, and their little passing into the 

 hands of strangers for inadequate considera- 

 tion. Many of them were impelled to acts of 



