Book Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NEW YOEK CITY. The head of the New York health department is the board of health, which coiisists of the president of the board of police, the health officer of the port, and two officers to be called commissioners of health, one of whom must have been a practicing physician for at least five years preceding his appointment. The other commissioner, who is not ? physician, shall be the president of the board. Both commissioners hold office for six years. The department of health is divided into two bureaus. The chief officer of one bureau is called the sanitary superintendent, who at the time of his appointment must have been for ten years a medical practitioner and for three years a resident of the city. The chief officer of the second bureau is called the register of records, and this bureau deals with vital and other statistics. The sanitary superintendent enforces the provisions of the sanitary code and the laws and the ordinances relating to tenements and lodging houses, etc. The board of health has executive, judicial, and legislative powers. It establishes its own sanitary code, which is supplementary to the laws and ordinances relating to the subject. It can order the inspection of any premises at any time, and is empowered to call upon the police authorities to enforce sanitary laws and regulations. Refusal to obey orders or to conform to regulations is considered a misdemeanor, and the responsible parties, in addition to being subject to punishment therefor, incur a penalty of $L'50, to be sued for and recovered by the board in any civil tribunal in the city. Whenever a minimum penalty for refusal to obey or for a violation of an order, regulation, or ordinance is not fixed, the amount recovered shall not be less than $20, the exact sum to be fixed by the judge p...