to or inconsistent with the context or subject matter in which such words or expressions occur; (that is to say,)

"Number;"

"Gender;"

"Person;"

"Lands, Premises."

"Owner;"

Words importing the singular number shall include the plural number, and words importing the plural number shall include the singular number:

Words importing the mascular gender shall include females:

The word "Person" and words applying to any person or individual shall apply to and include corporations, whether aggregate or sole:

The word "Lands" and the word "Premises" shall include messuages, buildings, lands, and hereditaments of any tenure:

The word "Owner" shall mean the person for the time being receiving the rack-rent of the lands or premises in connexion with which the said word is used, whether on his own account or as agent or trustee for any other person, or who would so receive the same if such lands or premises were let at a rack-rent: "Rack Rent;" The expression "Rack-Rent" shall mean rent which is not less than two thirds of the full net annual value of the property cut of which the rent arises; and the full net annual value shall be taken to be the rent at which the property might reasonably be expected to let from year to year, free from all usual tenant's rates and taxes, and tithe commutation rent-charge (if any), and deducting therefrom the probable average annual cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses (if any) necessary to maintain the same in a state to command such rent:

"Month;"

The word "Month" shall mean calendar month: "Commissioners The expression "Commissioners of her Majesty's Treaof the Treasury;" sury" shall mean the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the time being, or any three or more of them, or the Lord High Treasurer of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for the time being: "Superior

Courts ;"

The expression

Superior Courts" shall include her Majesty's Superior Courts of Record at Westminster, and the Court of Common Pleas of the County Palatine of Lancaster, and the Court of Pleas of the county of Durham:

"Justice;"

The word "Justice" shall mean any justice of the peace acting for the place in which the matter or any part of the matter, as the case may be, requiring the cognizance of the "justice" arises:

66

"Two Justices," The expression Two Justices" shall mean two or more justices assembled and acting together in petty sessions, or one stipendiary or police magistrate acting in any police court, for the place in which the matter or any part of the matter, as the case may be, requiring the cognizance of "two justices" arises: "Court of General The expression "Court of General or Quarter Sessions" shall mean the Court of General or Quarter Sessions of the peace having jurisdiction over the whole or any part of the district or place, as the case may be, in which the matter

or Quarter Sessions;"

requiring the cognizance of the "court of general or quarter sessions"

arises: "Arbitrators;"

"Oath;"

"Corporate Borough ;"

5 & 6 W. 4, c. 76.

"District;"

trict;"

The word "Arbitrators" shall include a single arbitrator; and the words "Arbitrators" and "Arbitrator" shall include an umpire:

The word " Oath" shall mean and include an affirmation in the case of Quakers, and a declaration in the case of persons allowed by law to make a declaration in lieu of an oath :

The expression " "Corporate Borough" shall mean any corporate borough mentioned in the schedules annexed to an Act passed in the Sixth year of the reign of King William the Fourth, intituled An Act for the Regulation of Municipal Corporations in England and Wales, and any borough incorporated by charter granted or to be granted in pursuance of that or any subsequent Act:

The word "District" shall mean the entire area, places, or parts of places comprised within the limits of any district to which this Act or any part thereof shall be applied by order in council or provisional order of the General Board of Health, sanctioned by Parliament : "Corporate Dis- The expression "Corporate District" shall mean a district in which the powers, authorities, and duties of the Local Board of Health of the district are exercised and executed by the council of a corporate borough: The expression "Noncorporate District" shall mean a district in which the powers, authorities, and duties of the Local Board of Health of the district are not exercise and executed by the council of a corporate borough: The word "Street" shall apply to and include any high

"Noncorporate District;"

"Street;"

way (not being a turnpike road), and any road, public bridge (not being a county bridge), lane, footway, square, court, alley, passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, and the parts of any such highway, road, bridge, lane, footway, square, court, alley, or passage within the limits of any district:

" House;" The word "House" shall include schools, factories, and other buildings in which more than twenty persons are employed at one time:

"Drain;'

The word "Drain” shall mean and include any drain of and used for the drainage of one building only, or premises within the same curtilage, and made merely for the purpose of communicating therefrom, with a cesspool or other like receptacle for drainage, or with a sewer into which the drainage of two or more buildings or premises occupied by different persons is conveyed:

"Sewer;"

"Slaughterhouse;"

The word "Sewer" shall mean and include sewers and drains of every description, except drains to which the word "drain" interpreted as aforesaid applies:

The term "Slaughter-house" shall mean and include the buildings and places commonly called slaughter-houses and knacker's yards, and any building or place used for

"Waterworks Company;"

slaughtering cattle, horses, or animals of any description for sale:

The expression "Waterworks Company" shall mean any corporation, person, or company of persons supplying, or who may hereafter supply water for their own profit. "Waterworks;" The term " Waterworks" shall include streams, springs,

wells, pumps, reservoirs, cisterns, tanks, aqueducts, cuts, sluices, mains, pipes, culverts, engines, and all machinery, lands, buildings, and things for supplying or used for supplying water, also the stock in trade of any waterworks company:

of Health;"

"The Local Board The expression "the Local Board of Health" shall mean the persons authorised to execute in each district all or any of the powers, authorities, and duties vested in or imposed upon the Local Board of Health by this Act: "The Clerk, &c.," The expressions "the Officer of Health," "the Clerk," "the Treasurer," "the Surveyor," "the Inspector of Nuisances," shall mean the persons respectively appointed to be or authorised to execute the offices of the officer of health, clerk, treasurer, surveyor, and inspector of nuisances respectively in each district for the purposes of this Act.

Mode of citing

this Act.

3. And be it enacted, That in citing this Act in other Acts of Parliament, and in legal instruments and other proceedings, it shall be sufficient to use the words "The Public Health Act, 1848,"

stituted,

General Board of 4. And be it enacted, That the first Commissioner for Health to be con- the time being of her Majesty's Woods and Forests, land revenues, works, and buildings, together with such two other persons as her Majesty by warrant under the royal sign manual may be pleased to appoint, shall be and constitute a board for superintending the execution of this Act, and shall be called "The General Board of Health," and shall have and execute all the powers and duties vested in or imposed on such board by this Act, and the said first commissioner shall be the president of the said board; and her Majesty may from time to time, at her pleasure, remove all or any of the persons so appointed by her, and appoint others in their stead; and the powers and duties vested in the said board by this Act may be exercised and executed by any two members thereof; and during any vacancy in the said board the continuing members or member thereof may act as if no vacancy had occurred: Provided always, that the said General Board of Health shall be continued only for five years next after the day of the passing of this Act, and thenceforth until the end of the then next session of Parliament, and no longer.

and servants, sub

Power to General 5. And be it enacted, That the said board may from time Board of Health to time appoint a secretary and such clerks and servants as to appoint officers they, subject to the approval of the Commissioners of her ject to approval of Majesty's Treasury, may deem necessary for the purposes Treasury, and to of this Act; and every person so appointed shall be recause a seal to be movable at the pleasure of the said board; and the said board shall cause to be made a seal for their use in the execution of this Act, and documents or copies of documents purporting to proceed from them, and to be signed by any two or more of them,

made.

and to be sealed or stamped with such seal, shall be received as primá facie evidence in all courts and places whatsoever.

superintending

to approval of Treasury.

Power to appoint 6. And be it enacted, That the General Board of Health may from time to time appoint so many proper inspectors, subject persons as they, subject to the approval of the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, may deem necessary, to be superintending inspectors for the purposes of this Act; and every person so appointed shall have all the powers, duties, and liabilities vested in or imposed upon any superintending inspector by this Act, and shall assist in the superintendence and execution of this Act, when, where, and in such manner as the said board shall direct, and shall be removable at their pleasure.

superintending

inspectors, &c.

Power to treasury 7. And be it enacted, That there shall be paid to such to grant salaries, one of the members of the General Board of Health, &c. to General not being the president, as her Majesty shall direct, and Board of Health, to the said secretary, clerks, and servants, such salaries or wages, and to the said superintending inspectors such allowances, as shall from time to time be appointed by the commissioners of her Majesty's treasury, out of any monies which may from time to time be provided by Parliament for that purpose: Provided always, that the allowance to a superintending inspector shall not exceed the sum of three pounds three shillings for every day he shall be actually employed or travelling in the performance of the duties of his office; provided also, that the commissioners of her Majesty's treasury may allow to any superintending inspector such reasonable travelling and other expenses as may be incurred by him in the performance of the duties of his office under this act, in addition to his said allowance.

Upon petition of a 8. And be it enacted, That from time to time after the certain proportion passing of this act, upon the petition of not less than one tenth of the inhabitants rated to the relief of the

of householders,

&c., or when the

&c. appear upon the Registrar

General's returns to be above a certain proportion,

superintending inspector to make local inquiry.

deaths in any city, poor of any city, town, borough, parish, or place having a known or defined boundary, not being less than thirty in the whole, or where it shall appear or can be ascertained from the last return for the time being made up by the Registrar General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths from the deaths registered in a period of not less than seven years that the number of deaths annually in any city, town, borough, parish, or place during the period in respect whereof such return shall have been made have on an average exceeded the proportion of twenty-three to a thousand of the population of such city, town, borough, parish, or place, the General Board of Health may, if and when they shall think fit, direct a superintending inspector to visit such city, town, borough, parish, or place, and to make public inquiry, and to examine witnesses, as to the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, the state of the burial grounds, the number and sanitary condition of the inhabitants, and as to any local Acts of Parliament in force within such city, town, borough, parish, or place for paving, lighting, cleansing, watching, regulating, supplying . with water, or improving the same, or having relation to the purposes of this Act, also as to the natural drainage areas, and the existing

municipal, parochial, or other local boundaries, and the boundaries which may be most advantageously adopted for the purposes of this act, and as to any other matters in respect whereof the said board may desire to be informed, for the purpose of enabling them to judge of the propriety of reporting to her Majesty, or making a provisional order as hereinafter mentioned.

inquiries respect

Inspector to give 9. And be it enacted, That before proceeding upon notice of inquiry, such inquiry the said inspector shall give fourteen days' and report to Ge- notice of his intention to make the same, and of a time neral Board the and place at which he will be prepared to hear all persons result of the same. desirous of being heard before him upon the subject of such inquiry, by advertisement in some one or more of the public newspapers usually circulated in the parts to which the inquiry will relate, and by causing such notice to be affixed on the doors of the principal churches, chapels, public buildings, and places where public notices are usually affixed within such parts, and in such other manner as may ap pear to the said inspector to be necessary; and so soon as can be after the completion of such inquiry he shall report in writing to the General Board of Health, in such manner as they may direct, upon the several matters with respect to which he has been directed to inquire as aforesaid, and upon any other matters with respect to which he may deem it Upon such report expedient to report for the purposes of this act; and if General Board upon such report it appear to the said General Board may, if they think that the boundaries which may be most advantageously fit, cause inspector adopted for the purposes of this act are not the same as to make further those of the city, town, borough, parish or place, with ing boundaries, respect to which inquiry has been made, they shall cause and present a the same or some other superintending inspector to visit further report, the parts within the boundaries proposed to be adopted which shall be for the purposes of this act, and, after having given such published, &c. notice as is hereinbefore prescribed, to hear all persons desirous of being heard before him upon the subject of the said report, and to make such further inquiry and report to the said board as they may direct; and upon the presentation of such report or further report the said board shall cause copies thereof respectively to be published in the parts to which such report or further report respectively relate, in such manner as they may direct, and shall also cause other copies thereof respectively to be deposited with the town clerk of any corporate borough affected thereby, and with the clerk to the commissioners or trustees acting under any Local Act of Parliament in force within such parts for lighting, paving, cleansing, watching, regulating, supplying with water, or improving such parts, or any of them, or in anywise relating to the purposes of this act, and with the clerk to the justices acting for any petty sessional division in which such parts may be, and with the clerk of the Board of Guardians of the union or parish the whole or part of which may be affected thereby; and if such report or further report relate to parts not being within any corporate borough the said board shall cause other copies of the same to be deposited with the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of any parish in which such parts or any of them may be; and the copies so published or deposited shall be accompanied by a notice stating that within a certain time, not