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remove any inhabitants of said town visited with the smallpox or other contagious or infectious distemper, to the hos pital in said town or other convenient place, in order to prevent the spreading of the infection; or otherwise at their discretion to place a guard round the dwelling-house of the infected person, as to them shall seem necessary.

SEC. 14. So long as the town council of any town shall endeavor to prevent the spreading of the small-pox, no persons whatsoever shall visit any person suspected to have the small-pox, or to go into the house where suspected persons are confined, without a license first had from the town council of the town or of the attending physician, on the penalty of forfeiting for every such offence twenty dollars; one half to and for the use of the town where such offence is committed, and the other half to him who shall inform and sue for the same, to be recovered before any court of competent jurisdiction; and such persons, on information of their offence shall be liable to be confined until they are suitably aired and cleansed or have performed suitable quarantine, at the discretion of the town council to whom complaint of the same shall be made.

SEC. 15. When any person shall be found to be infected with the small-pox, it shall be the duty of the householder in whose house such infected person may be or reside, within twenty-four hours thereafter, to place a white flag not less than three feet in length and two in breadth, with the words "small-pox," in large black letters on both sides thereof, and so suspended as to be easily read, at or near the front door or principal entrance to such house on the outside thereof, and to keep said flag up so long as there shall be any danger of taking the infection from said house.

SEC. 16. Any person who shall be convicted of wilfully and purposely spreading the small-pox or other contagious or infectious distemper within this state, shall be imprisoned for one year; and if any person shall die in consequence of spreading of the small-pox or other contagious or infectious distemper as aforesaid, the person who shall be convicted of wilfully and purposely spreading the same as aforesaid, shall be fined a sum not exceeding five thousand dollars and be imprisoned not more than five years nor less than one year: provided, nothing in this section shall be construed or understood to extend to such practitioners in physic as shall be allowed by the town council to inoculate for the small-pox, after the said town council have thought fit to desist from their endeavors to prevent the further spreading of the same.

SEC. 17. If any physician, surgeon or any other person lawfully required by any town council to do any duty relating to the preventing of the spreading of the small-pox, or executing any part of this act, shall refuse or neglect to perform the same, the performance whereof being in his power, such physician, surgeon and other person, shall for every offence pay as a fine to and for the use of the state the sum of forty dollars.

SEC. 18. The town councils are hereby fully authorized and empowered to grant permission for inoculation for the small-pox in their respective towns, under such conditions and regulations as they shall direct.

SEC. 19. The town councils of the respective towns are hereby fully authorized to make and prescribe such orders and regulations as they may deem prudent and advisable for the preservation of the health of the inhabitants, by the prevention and removal of nuisances injurious thereto, or any other causes which in their judgment may originate or conduce to the spreading of any infectious or contagious disease; they are authorized to annex such pecuniary penalties for the breach of the orders and regulations which they shall make and prescribe relative to the object aforesaid as they shall adjudge adequate and necessary to effect the same; said penalties may be prosecuted for and recovered by action of debt before any court proper to try the same; one moiety whereof shall be for the use of the town wherein the offence shall be committed, and the other moiety for the use of him who shall sue for the same; and if such nuisances or other causes injurious to the health of the inhabitants as aforesaid shall not be removed by the person permitting or erecting the same, pursuant to any order or regulation of the town council for the town, it shall be the duty of the town council thereupon to adopt such measures as they shall deem effectual for the removal of such nuisances, or other causes injurious to the health of the inhabitants as aforesaid, at the proper charge and expense of the person erecting or permitting the same; and the sheriff, his deputies and the town sergeants and constables of the several towns, shall execute all such precepts and orders as shall be to them directed by said town councils for carrying this act into execution.

SEC. 20. In case any person shall hereafter be sick of any malignant, pestilential or infectious disease in any town, so as to endanger his life by being removed, or in case it shall appear that the disease be so spread that the atmosphere in the judgment of the town council has become so contamina

ted as to endanger the lives of those persons who reside or go into the neighborhood of the sick, then and in such case it shall be lawful for the town council of such town to cause all such persons within such neighborhood to be notified to remove and go therefrom within three days; and if after that time any person shall remain there, the said town council is hereby authorized to cause him to be forthwith removed at his own expense: provided, nevertheless, that the expense of the removal of the poor or such as are unable, in the judgment of the town council, to remove themselves, shall be paid out of the town treasury.

SEC. 21. The town councils in the several towns shall, in the month of June one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, or before that time, and once in five years thereafter, provide for the gratuitous vaccination of the inhabitants thereof.

SEC. 22. The said councils shall contract with and provide a suitable number of vaccinators to vaccinate as aforesaid; and order the treasurer of the several towns respectively to pay them such compensation as may be previously agreed upon; and the said vaccinators shall give due and reasonable notice of the time and place of meeting for the purpose of vaccination.

SEC. 23. The said vaccinators shall place in the several town clerks' offices a blank book, and shall severally record in a fair and legible hand therein, the name and age of every patient by them vaccinated as aforesaid; and also such other remarks and observations as they may deem useful, and as soon after fulfilling said contract as may be convenient.

SEC. 24. The said clerks shall safely keep said books for the accommodation of said vaccinators and others without any compensation, and deliver the same over to their sucsessors. But they may charge lawful fees for searching the same or for any copies.

SECTION

An Act for laying out Highways.

1. Proprietors shall lay out highways.
2. Town council may lay out highways-

manner of proceeding therein-parties
interested to be notified.

3. Town council may lay out driftways— proceedings therein.

4. Persons aggrieved may appeal to court of common pleas-proceedings on appeal-jury may affirm or reverse proceedings.

5. Damages allowed, to be paid by town

treasurer.

SECTION

6. Town council may lay out new high-
ways in lieu of any which they shall
judge useless.

7. Land used as public highway, &c., for
twenty years shall be deemed such.
8. Town council to give notice to all per-

sons interested, before proceeding un. der foregoing section-appeal allowed. 9. If owner of land deeds it for a highway, it may be opened and repaired by the town.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. The proprietors of lands in each and every town shall lay out suitable, necessary and convenient highways within their respective proprieties, from town to town, and to mills and markets, and generally wherever they may be wanted. And all highways duly laid out and approved by such proprietors and recorded in their records shall be good, binding and valid, as though laid out and established in any other manner whatsoever.

SEC. 2. If it be found necessary that other highways be laid out in any town besides such as have been or shall be laid out by the proprietors as aforesaid, in every such case it shall be lawful for the town council of such town to order a highway to be laid out so far and through such part of the same town as they may judge necessary; and for the due marking out such highway, the town council shall appoint three suitable and indifferent men, not interested or concerned in the land through which such highway is to pass, who shall be sworn by the town council, or by the justice of the peace who shall be named to accompany them, for the faithful discharge of that trust; which three men, being accompanied by one justice of the peace and one constable, or the town sergeant of the town, to be named by the said town council for that purpose, shall go to the place where such highway is ordered to begin, and from thence proceed to survey, bound and mark out a highway conformable to the direction of the town council; always taking care to lay it in such manner as may be most advantageous to the public, and as little as may be to the injury of the owners of the land through which it passes; and they shall also agree with the owners for the damage they shall sustain, if any, by means of such highway passing through their lands; and in case they cannot agree with the owners, then the town council shall value and appraise the damage, if any; and having thus proceeded and finished laying out such highway, they shall cause an exact draught or plan thereof to be made, which together with the proper return of their whole doings in writing, under their hands and seals, shall be by them presented to such town council; who thereupon shall cause notice to be given to all parties to appear before them if they shall see cause, and be heard for or against receiving such report; notice to parties living without this state shall be given by advertisement three weeks successively, in some newspaper printed within this state; and after such hearing the council shall proceed to receive or reject such report, as to them shall ap

pear just and right; and if the report be approved and received, then they shall cause the same to be recorded, and such highway to be established and laid open, by removing all buildings, fences and other impediments therein, which shall be done by the town sergeant or constable of the town, under a warrant from the town council to him directed for

that purpose.

SEC. 3. The several town councils are hereby empowered to lay out driftways in their respective towns, in such places and of such widths as they shall think necessary, as fully as by law they are empowered to lay out highways; such driftways shall be laid out in the same manner and under the same regulations in every respect as highways are; the damage shall be ascertained in the same manner as in laying out highways. It shall be in the power of the town council to order and direct who shall be at the charge of maintaining gates and bars where any such driftway shall be laid out, and also whether the same shall be furnished with gates or bars.

SEC. 4. If any person through whose land such highway or driftway is laid, shall be aggrieved by the doings of such committee or town council, he shall have liberty to appeal to the next court of common pleas to be holden for the county; giving bond to prosecute his appeal and producing an attested copy of the whole proceedings to such court, and filing his reasons of appeal with the clerk of such court ten days before the sitting thereof: whereupon an order shall be made requiring the sheriff of the county or his deputy to empannel a jury of twelve good men, not being inhabitants of or having interest in the town where such highway or driftway is laid; which jury being duly sworn for that purpose, shall go and re-examine the laying of the highway or driftway and damages given and allowed to the owners of the land through which it passes, and make such alteration in either or both as shall seem just and right; or totally annul and reverse all such proceedings if they shall see cause; and shall under their hands make return of their doings to said court, which being accepted by said court shall be recorded and be final: and the said court shall tax such costs as shall accrue by the proceedings aforesaid, against the appellant, in case the jurors shall make no alteration in the doings of the committee or town council respecting said highway, or shall not increase the damages allowed; but if the jury shall increase the damages allowed or shall reverse and annul such doings of the said committee or council, then costs shall be taxed against the town where such highway shall have been laid.

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