18. Such expenses to remain an incumbrance on the houses and lots until paid with interest and costs.

9. Pawnbrokers and dealers in secondhand furniture, &c., to be regulated by com

mon council.

10. To be licensed.

11. And to enter into recognizance.

8. Penalties may be inflicted, not exceeding $100, to enforce a compliance with the by-laws.

20. Penalties on physicians, for neglect of duty.

24. Penalties on sextons, for neglect of duty.

27. Penalties under this act and the poor act, how recovered and appropriated.

34. Penalties not exceeding $25, how recovered.

28. Penalties, common council may remit or compound.

19. Physicians, their duty in case of the death of a person whom they attend.

25. Physicians, when required, to give their opinion with regard to infectious diseases. 39. Pleadings, under this act, what to be.

4. Privies and sinks, may be filled up or altered.

32. Provisions, putrid or unsound, may be destroyed.

3. Public slips.

15, 16. Public slips-expense attending, altering, &c.

21. Sextons, not to permit interments until they receive a written note of the disease of which the deceased died.

22. Sextons, to make entries of the contents of the notes, and deliver the same to the

clerk of the city.

42. Sheriff, to pay a certain sum out of fines collected, to the constables attending

courts.

43. State Prison, no inspector of, to act as agent thereof.

29. Streets, no new one to be laid out without permission of common council.

30. Streets, new, what to be considered such.

31. Streets, new, buildings erected on, not to be removed till paid for.

35. Streets, common council may extend, enlarge or straighten.

36. Streets, when straightened, enlarged or improved, damages sustained by individuals thereby, how determined.

37. Streets, expenses of enlarging or straightening, how paid.

AN ACT to invest the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New York, with adequate Powers in Relation to certain Objects of Importance to the Police and Health of the said city.—Passed April 24, 1803.

Whereas, The general welfare of the state is connected with the safety and health of the city of New York, which has been visited by destructive and epidemic disease, the causes of which, as far as human wisdom can discover, ought to be removed, and such measures adopted as, by divine favor, may prevent the return of that fatal malady. And whereas, It is represented to the Legislature, that noxious exhalations from sunken and damp lots of ground, deep damp cellars, narrow and confined streets, foul and ill-constructed sinks, and privies unfinished, water lots, foul slips, putrid or unsound provisions, and other evils of a similar nature, together with the practice of interring the dead in the heat of summer in improper places, and without due precautions, are among the

causes, to which the existence or malignity of that disease may be, in a great measure, attributed : Therefore, to remedy the said evils,

I. Be it enacted by the People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, That the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the said city, in common council convened, shall have full power and authority to make and pass such by-laws and ordinances as they shall, from time to time, deem necessary and proper for the filling up, draining and regulating of any grounds, yards or cellars within the said city, that may be sunken, damp or unwholesome, or which they may deem proper to fill up, drain, raise, lower or regulate; and also, for causing all such lots of ground in the said city, adjoining to Hudson's river, or to the East river or Sound, as they may, from time to time, think proper, to be filled up with wholesome earth, or other solid materials, so far into the said rivers respectively, as they shall, from time to time, deem expedient for promoting the health of the said city; and for com pelling the proprietors of such lots to make suitable bulkheads on, adjoining or opposite to such lots, and to raise and fill up the same with such materials and in such manner and within such times as the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty shall, from time to time, direct; and also for filling up, altering and amending of all public slips in the said city, at such times and in such manner as they may deem proper; and for filling up or altering and amending all sinks and privies within the said city, and for directing the mode of constructing them in future, and for causing subterraneous drains to be made from the same, where they may think it necessary, and for regulating, or, if they find it necessary, preventing the interment of the dead within the said city; and for the better regulating of boarding-houses and taverns in the said city, and the preventing the resort of crowds of disorderly persons to them; and for preventing the digging or turning up of made ground or grounds formerly covered with water, during the summer months, without their permission.

II. And be it further enacted, That such penalties may be contained in such by-laws or ordinances, as the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty shall or may, from time to time, think proper, in order to enforce a prompt and punctual compliance with the same, and for the punishment of all offenders in the premises, not exceeding one hundred dollars for each offence; and that the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty may, from time to time, make laws for the regulating of pawnbrokers, and dealers in the purchase or sale of secondhand furniture, metals or cloths; and that every person carrying on either of the said callings, trades or dealings,

shall have a license from the mayor of the said city for the same, under the directions of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the said city, and shall enter into a recognizance in the penalty of one hundred dollars, conditioned for the observance of such ordinances as may be made by the common council of the said city in the premises; and the said common council are hereby authorized and empowered to make by-laws and regulations relative to the taxing and destroying of dogs within the said city.

III. And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, in common council convened, to appoint one or more persons as inspectors of lots in the said city, who shall have power at all times, between sunrise and sunset, to enter into any cellar, lot of ground or building of any kind, and to examine the state thereof, and to report the same to the said common council, whenever he or they shall judge that the health of the city may require any alterations or regulations therein.

IV. And be it further enacted, That in all cases where the said bylaws or ordinances shall require anything to be done, by or with respect to the property of several persons, or in relation to the filling up, altering or amending any of the public slips in the said city, the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, in common council convened, shall cause the expense of such works to be estimated and assessed in the same manner as is by law directed, with respect to the paving, altering or regulating the public streets in the said city; and where the same shall relate to the filling up, altering or amending the public slips as aforesaid, one-third of the expense attending the same shall be borne by the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, and the residue by the persons in the vicinity who may be benefited thereby, and in other cases such expenses shall be borne by the persons respectively upon whom the same may be assessed as aforesaid.

V. And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, in all cases where they may deem it necessary, for the more speedy execution of the said by-laws and ordinances, or any of them, to cause all such works as may be necessary for any of the purposes aforesaid, or any part thereof, to be executed and done at their own expense, on account of the persons respectively upon whom the same may be assessed, and shall have full power, and are hereby authorized to levy the same, with lawful interest, and all reasonable costs and expenses attending such proceedings, by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the proprietors or occupants of the property upon or by

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reason of which any such sum shall have been assessed, or to recover the amount of every such expense, by action of debt, in any court of record, from the persons respectively on whose account the same shall have been incurred, their respective heirs, executors or administrators, in all which actions they shall also recover lawful interest upon the said amount, with full costs of suit.

VI. And be it further enacted, That the amount of every such expense which the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty shall pay as aforesaid on account of others, shall be a real incumbrance upon the houses and lots in respect to which such assessments as aforesaid shall have been made, and shall bear lawful interest until paid, and that the same may be recovered, or the payment thereof, with costs, enforced in like manner as if the said houses and lots were mortgaged to the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, for the payment thereof.

VII. And be it further enacted, That whenever any person shall die in the city of New York, the physician or surgeon who shall have attended such person, as a physician or surgeon, during his or her last sickness, shall leave a note in writing, signed with his name, with some one of the family in the house where such person shall have died, specifying the name and apparent age of the deceased, and the disease of which he or she shall have died; and every phy. sician or surgeon refusing or neglecting to make and deliver such note, shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars; and that no sexton of any church, or other person having charge of any cemetery, vault or burying ground in the said city, shall permit any dead body to be interred therein until he has received such note, in writing, so signed as aforesaid; or in case no physician or surgeon shall have attended such deceased person, or the physician or surgeon who did attend, shall have neglected or refused to leave such note, then a like note, signed by some of the family in which such person shall have died, the contents of which note in writing, shall be entered by such sexton on a blank schedule, to be furnished by the clerk of the city and county aforesaid, and delivered together with the said schedule, on the Saturday in every week, to the said clerk for publication, in such form hs may be designated by any present or future ordinance of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York: and that every sexton or other person having charge of any place of interment, neglecting or refusing to perform any of the duties required by this act, shall forfeit the sum of twenty-five dollars.

VIII. And be it further enacted, That every practitioner or physician in the said city, shall, whenever called on for that purpose

by the mayor, or in his absence, by the recorder, give his opinion in writing as to the existence of any infectious or contagious disease in the said city; and that the said mayor may, when thereunto required, if such opinion will, in his judgment, warrant it, deliver certificates under his seal of office, to masters of vessels sailing from the said city, stating the general health of the said city.

IX. And be it further enacted, That all suits for any penalties im posed by this act, and all penalties or any bonds taken in the said city under the act, entitled "An act for the settlement and relief of the poor," shall, whenever the same shall be deemed to be forfeited, be sued for, recovered and levied under the direction of the mayor of the said city, in the name of the mayor, aldermen and common. alty of the city of New York, and the proceeds thereof be by them applied to the public use of the said city; and that the common council of the said city may have power to remit or compound for the said penalties or forfeitures, whenever the same shall appear to them not to have been wilfully or fraudulently incurred.

X. And be it further enacted, That no new street shall hereafter be laid out in the said city, except with the approbation and permission of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty, in common council convened and that if any street shall be laid out without such permission, it shall be lawful for the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, by by-law or ordinances, to direct the same to be stopped up, and all buildings adjoining thereto to be removed by the proprietors or occupants, within such times, and under such penalties as they shall think proper.

XI. And be it further enacted, That all streets not already named and opened, shall be considered as new streets within the meaning of this act: Provided, That no building erected on any such street not already named and opened shall be removed, until it shall be determined, in the mode prescribed in and by the second section of the act, entitled "An act for regulating the buildings, streets, wharfs and slips in the city of New York," passed the 3d day of April, 1801, what damage or loss the owner of such buildings will sustain by means of such removal, and until the money awarded to such owner shall be paid or tendered to him.

XII. And be it further enacted, That whenever any putrid or unsound beef, pork, fish, hides or skins of any kind, shall be found within the said city, it shall be lawful for the said mayor, aldermen and commonalty, or any one of the inspectors of those articles or any of them, or any person or persons acting under them, or any of them, to cause the same to be destroyed, by starting it or casting them

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