CHAPTER 49.
BOARDS OF HEALTH. HEALTH BOARDS AND REGULATIONS.
AN ACT to Amend Chapter 25 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware. Being an Act Relating to the State Board of Health.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
That Chapter 25 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware be and the same is hereby amended by adding thereto the following sections to be styled as 736A. Section IA ; 798A. Section 63A; and the same Chapter 25 is hereby amended by repealing 739 Section 4 thereof, 745 Section 10 thereof, 786 Section 51 thereof, and by substituting in lieu thereof the following sections to be styled as 739 Section 4, 745 Section 10, 786 Section 51:
736A. Section 1A. The State Board of Health shall have a seal, which shall contain the words, "State Board of Health of Delaware 1879." Every certificate or other official paper executed by the Secretary of the State Board of Health, in pursuance of any authority conferred by law, and bearing the seal of the board, shall be received as evidence, when duly certified by the secretary of said board under its seal, with the same force and effect as the original would, in law, be entitled to, if produced in open court.
798A. Section 63A. The State Board of Health shall have a seal, which shall contain the words, "State Board of Health of Delaware, Bureau of Vital Statistics 1913." Every certificate or other official paper executed by the Secretary of the State Board of Health, acting in his capacity as State Registrar, in pursuance of any authority conferred by law, and bearing the seal of the board, shall be received as evidence, when duly certified by the secretary of said board, under its seal, with the same force and effect as the original would, in law, be entitled to, if produced in open court.
The State Board of Health shall have a seal for each Vital Statistic registration district, which shall contain the words, "State Board of Health of Delaware, Bureau of Vital Statistics 1913" with the respective county and district inscribed therein. Every certificate or other official paper executed by any Local Registrar of the State Board of Health, in pursuance of any authority conferred upon him by Law, and bearing the seal as herein described, shall be received as evidence, when duly certified by the said Local Registrar under its seal, with the same force and effect as the original would, in law, be entitled to, if produced in open court.
739. Section 4. Said Board shall be an Advisory Board to the authorities of the State in all matters pertaining to public hygiene; it shall have authority to make special inspection of hospitals, prisons, asylums, *almhouses [*almshouse] and other public institutions, and to investigate by the Secretary or committees of the Board the cause of any special disease or mortality in any part of the State, and to make such regulations and adopt such measures including quarantine, vaccination, etc., as it may deem best efficient to eradicate all infectious diseases. In localities where there are no local Boards of Health, or where the same shall refuse or neglect to act, the President may direct any member of the Board, or the Secretary, to investigate all complaints made in writing, and if the said member shall find a nuisance to exist he shall order the same to be abated in a reasonable time. In such cases the State Board shall have all power and remedies given by law to local Boards ; if no person responsible for said nuisance be found, the Secretary shall abate the same, and his expenses shall, upon approval by the President, be paid by the Treasurer of the County wherein said nuisance existed. Said State Board shall, at each regular session of the Legislature, submit to it a report of its acts, investigations and discoveries with such suggestions as may be deemed proper. Five hundred copies of said report shall be printed and bound in linen, and three hundred paper bound, for exchange and distribution by the State Board of Health.
745. Section 10. The Common Council of every city and the Commissioners of every incorporated town in the State, except in the City of Wilmington, shall appoint in January of each year, a Board of Health for such city or town, to consist of not less than three nor more than seven persons, of whom at least one should be a physician duly authorized to practice medicine, and who shall hold said office until their successors are appointed ; and in case there be a port physician appointed by the Governor, he shall be a member of the board ex-officio. In case the said Common Council or the said Commissioners are unsuccessful in securing persons to act on said Board, then the said Common Council or the said Commissioners are and shall be the Board of Health for such City or Town, and shall perform all duties and offices said Board of Health should perform, and be subject to all laws applicable to Local Boards of Health.
The said local Boards of Health shall elect annually from among their own members a president and a secretary of such Board, and shall meet not less than once in every three months. The Secretary of the Board shall keep the minutes of the meetings of the Board, and shall perform all such duties as shall be assigned to him by the Board; for which services he shall receive such compensation as the City Council, or Commissioners of the respective cities or towns may determine.
786. Section 51. The Regular Annual Meeting of the State Board of Health shall be held on the first Thursday of April of each and every year, at which meeting the Pathologist and Bacteriologist shall be elected by the said Board.
Approved April 25, A. D. 1917.