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Nuisance Removal Acts, the Sanitary Acts, the Infectious
Disease (Notification, and Prevention) Acts, the Slaughter
Houses Act, and the Smoke Acts as well as certain provisions
relating to the Asylums Board Hospitals, contained partly in
Poor Law Acts, and partly in Disease Prevention Acts. Some
of the above mentioned enactments were consolidated for
England and Wales, outside the metropolis, by the Public
Health Act, 1875, and substantially they are re-enacted in
the Public Health (London) Act in the form in which they
appear in the Act of 1875. The new Act comprises 142 sections.
With a view to facilitate the mastery of its contents I
have prepared the following abstract of some of its principal
provisions, especially such as are new, or are of more immediate
practical importance, grouping those which relate to nuisances
liable to be dealt with summarily.
The Public Health (London) Act, 1891, is described as
"an Act to Consolidate and Amend the Laws relating to
Public Health in London." Regarded from this point of view
the first section is all important, being in fact the key to very
much that follows, indicating as it does the duty which the
Legislature intended to devolve upon the Sanitary Authority
and their officials. It reads as follows
"i. It shall be the duty of every Sanitary Authority to cause to be made, from
time to time, inspection of their district, with a view to ascertain what
nuisances exist calling for abatement under the powers of this Act, and to
enforce the provisions of this Act for the purpose of abating the same, and
otherwise to put in force the powers vested in them relating to public health
and local government, so as to secure the proper sanitary condition of all
premises within their district."
Nuisances (General), Definition of.—Section 2 adds to the familiar list of
nuisances, as defined in the repealed Acts: "Any premises in such a state as to be
dangerous to health and also any cistern, water-closet, urinal, drain,
dung-pit, or ash pit "so foul or in such a state as to be a nuisance, or injurious or
dangerous to health," the expression "dangerous," moreover, always following the
expression "injurious"—for the nuisance need not be injurious to health. Also any
house, or part of a house, so overcrowded as to be injurious or dangerous to the
health of the inmates. Also any Factory, workshop, or workplace (other than those