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agents or commanders of such vessels as may be subjected to quarantine or examination.

SEC. 7. All penalties accruing under this act shall be recovered by action of the case, to be brought in the name of the town treasurer of the town where said offence is committed, before any justice of the peace of such town, if the penalty does not exceed twenty dollars; but if more than twenty dollars, said action shall be brought before the court of common pleas in the county where such offence is committed.

SEC. 8. All sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, town sergeants and constables, are hereby required in their several capacities, to carry the rules and regulations of the several town councils in their several counties into effect.

SEC. 9. Any town council establishing rules and regulations respecting quarantine as herein before expressed, shall cause the same to be published in one or more newspapers printed within this state, within or nearest the town wherein such rules and regulations shall be adopted, as aforesaid, and at the proper cost and expense of said town.

SEC. 10. The town council of Newport is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint such persons as the said town council may deem suitable, as a board of health; whose duties, powers and authority shall be the same as said town council have a right to exercise by law, during the period for which they shall by the said town council be appointed, for the preservation of the health of the inhabitants.

An Act to prevent the spreading of Contagious or Infectious Sickness in this State.

SECTION

1. No infected vessel to anchor within one mile of any ferry or landing place; to wear colors in her shrouds. 2. Persons leaving any such vessel without permit, to be sent back and be fined.

3. Physician to be sent on board to examine state of vessel, and proper persons to prevent communication with shore.

SECTION

cleansing goods and nursing sick from on board vessels.

8. Mariners' wages to be stopped till such accounts be paid.

9. Penalty for coming from any infected town by land.

10.

Town councils empowered to make rules to prevent persons entering their towns by land, when coming from infected places.

4. Persons on board to be kept on board 11. Tavern keepers, &c., to give notice

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of infected lodgers; who may be removed.

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Expenses of guarding and cleansing house where infection has been, by whom paid.

13.

7. Town councils to audit accounts for

Town councils may remove infected persons to hospital.

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It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. Every commander of any vessel which shall come into any port or harbor of this state, and shall have any person on board sick of the small pox or any other contagious or infectious distemper, or which has had any person sick of such distemper in the passage, or which shall come from any port or place usually infected with the small pox, or where any other contagious or infectious distemper is prevalent, who shall bring such vessel to anchor in any of the ports of this state within the distance of one mile of any public ferry, pier or landing place, or permit or suffer any person on board such vessel to be landed, or any person to come on board such vessel without a license first had and obtained from the town council of such town where such vessel shall arrive, shall pay as a fine to and for the use of the state the sum of four hundred dollars; and it shall be the duty of such commander on his first arrival in any port in this state, to hoist and keep his colors in the shrouds of such vessel, as a signal of having come from any such infected place, or having infection or contagion on board.

SEC. 2. If any person whosoever shall come on shore from on board such vessel, without license first had and obtained as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the town council to send back such offender immediately on board such vessel, or confine him on shore in such convenient place as to them shall appear most effectual to prevent the spreading of any infection; and the person so offending shall satisfy and pay all charges that shall arise thereon, and shall also pay as a fine the sum of forty dollars, to and for the use of the state.

SEC. 3. The town council of the town where such vessel shall arrive are hereby empowered and directed to send a physician, or other suitable person, to examine into and make report to them of the true state of such vessel and the people on board, at the charge of the master or owner of such vessel; and they shall forthwith put on board such vessel some

suitable person or persons to secure said vessel, and effectually prevent any communication therewith, at the like charge of the master or owners thereof.

SEC. 4. The town council of such town are hereby empowered and directed to confine on board such vessel, or send to some hospital or other suitable place, all persons, mariners or passengers, or others who came in said vessel, for a convenient time, until such of them as have or are liable to have the small-pox or other infectious or contagious distemper are perfectly recovered and cleansed from said distemper, or have passed a suitable quarantine; and also all persons who have gone on board said vessel without license as aforesaid, at the charge and expense of such persons respectively.

SEC. 5. The town council of such town are hereby empowered and directed to appoint suitable persons to take effectual care that all goods, wares and merchandise imported in such vessel, which they think liable to hold and communicate the infection or contagion, be landed in some suitable place to be appointed by such town council, and cleansed in the manner by them directed, before they are permitted to be brought into any house, shop or warehouse other than where they are cleansed as aforesaid; and when such goods are sufficiently aired and cleansed, said persons shall give the owners or possessors thereof a certificate; and the town council shall allow and order said goods, wares and merchandise to be delivered to the owners thereof; and the charge and expense of airing, landing and cleansing such goods, wares and merchandise shall be borne by the respective owners; and such charge shall be a lien on such goods, wares and merchandise. And all goods that are judged by the town council not to be infected shall be delivered to the owners without delay and expense of airing, and as soon as may be consistent with the safety of the town in regard to other parts of the cargo; and all goods, wares and merchandise imported into any town by land from any place infected with the small-pox or other contagious or infectious distemper, shall be aired and cleansed at the discretion of the town council of such town, and at the expense of the owners thereof as aforesaid.

SEC. 6. All goods imported in such vessel as aforesaid that shall be clandestinely landed or brought into any house, shop or warehouse without a certificate and allowance as aforesaid, or that shall be imported by land as aforesaid, and not cleansed or aired by order of the town council as aforesaid, shall be forfeited; one-third to and for the use of the state, and the other two-thirds to him who shall sue for the

same in the court of common pleas in the county where such offence shall be committed; and all justices are hereby empowered and required upon information given them, to seize and secure all such goods, wares and merchandise in their respective jurisdictions until legal trial.

SEC. 7. The town councils of the respective towns are hereby empowered and directed to fix, settle and adjust all wages and charges demanded by persons employed by them, to secure such vessel, or to air and cleanse such goods, or to attend upon and nurse such persons as aforesaid; and if any owner, freighter, mariner or passenger as aforesaid, shall refuse to pay such wages and charges so settled, adjusted and fixed, then the town treasurer of such town is hereby empowered and required to sue for and recover such wages and charges, if above twenty dollars, in the court of common pleas in the county where such charges shall be adjusted and settled; and if twenty dollars or under, then before any one justice, as in the case of other actions; and the court where such action is brought are hereby empowered to tax double costs for the plaintiff if he recover in his said action.

SEC. 8. For the better securing of the payment of what charges may arise on the nursing or attending upon any sailor or mariner belonging to such vessel as aforesaid, the master thereof is hereby required to stop payment of the wages due to such mariner, until certified from the town council that such charges are fully satisfied and paid, on penalty of paying the same so far as the amount of the wages so paid by him; and no court shall make up judgment for any such wages until satisfaction be made as aforesaid.

SEC. 9. When the small-pox or any other infectious or contagious distemper shall be prevalent in any place or town, all persons who shall come from any such infected place or town into this state by land, before the expiration of ten days after they shall have left such infected place or town, shall forfeit and pay as a fine a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, nor less than ten dollars, to and for the use of the state and the town council in any town are hereby empowered to appoint proper persons at all ferries or places that to them may seem necessary, to examine on oath all persons suspected to transgress this law, and on reasonable cause of suspicion, to bring such offenders before some justice of the peace, that they may be dealt with according to law.

SEC. 10. The several boards of health in this state shall have power to order and enact such rules and regulations as they may deem expedient to prevent any person who shall

have come from any town or place out of this state in which any infectious or contagious disease shall be prevalent, and who shall have come on shore or entered this state by land in any other town in this state, from entering the town where such rules and regulations shall be made before the expiration of such time after such person shall have left such infected town or place, as by such rules and regulations may be prescribed; and shall affix such penalties for the breach of such rules and regulations as to them shall seem necessary, not exceeding the sum of one hundred dollars; which shall be recovered by action of the case to be brought in the name of the town treasurer of the town where the offence shall be committed, in any court of competent jurisdiction.

SEC. 11. All persons who keep public houses or boarders in their houses shall immediately acquaint the town council of the town wherein they dwell, when any person boarding or lodging in their house is taken sick of the small-pox or any other contagious or infectious distemper, or suspected to be so, on the penalty of forfeiting twenty dollars to and for the use of the town; to be recovered by the town treasurer before any justice of the peace of said town; and the town council so notified are hereby empowered and directed to make proper examination by some physician or other skilful person; and if it be the small-pox or other contagious or infectious distemper wherewith such sick person is visited, then immediately to set a proper guard to prevent the spreading of the contagion or infection, and to remove said person to any such place in said town as they shall think the most proper to prevent the spreading of the infection or contagion, or to continue the said guard as aforesaid, according as to them shall seem necessary; and likewise to confine all such persons as may be by them suspected to have taken the distemper, in some proper place, until they are recovered and cleansed from the said distemper, or have performed a suitable quarantine.

SEC. 12. When the small-pox or other contagious or infectious distemper shall break out in any house, and the infected persons be confined to such house, the town shall be at the expense of guarding the same, and the owner at the charge of cleansing the same, to be settled by the town council, which charges of cleansing, upon refusal to pay the same, shall be recovered by the town treasurer.

SEC. 13. In case the small-pox or other contagious or infectious distemper shall break out in any house or family in any town, the town council thereof are fully empowered to

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