of attorneygeneral, and report to legislature. 1886, 274, § 3. 1888, 375, § 3. Definition of "drainage" may come to its knowledge of omission to comply with existing laws respecting the pollution of water supplies and inland waters, and shall annually report to the legislature any specific cases not covered by the provisions of existing laws, which in its opinion call for further legislation. 66 136. In this act the term "drainage" refers to rainfall, and " sewage." surface and subsoil water only, and " sewage" refers to domestic and manufacturing filth and refuse. 1888, 375, § 4. Lots to be indivisible, but inheritable. Representatives of, how designated. CEMETERIES, BURIALS, AND REMOVAL OR TRANSPORTATION OF 137. BODIES. Lots in cemeteries shall be held indivisible, and upon the decease of a proprietor, his heirs at law, or the devisees of such lot if devised, shall succeed to his privileges. If there is P. S., c. 82, § 3. more than one heir or devisee, they shall within nine months from such decease designate in writing to the clerk of the corporation which of their number shall represent the lot; and on their failure so to designate, the board of trustees or directors of the corporation shall enter of record which of said heirs or devisees shall represent the lot while such failure continues. 1841 Provisions of preceding sec tion to apply to tombs in public cemeteries in cities, etc. 138. The preceding section shall apply to all tombs in public cemeteries in cities, and the boards of health in cities shall exercise, in regard to such tombs, the powers granted by said P. S., c. 82, § 4. section to trustees or directors of cemetery corporations. 1877 Boards of health may make regulations. 1885, 278, § 1. 1816 139. Boards of health of cities and towns may prohibit the use by undertakers, for the purpose of speculation, of tombs as places of deposit for bodies committed to them for burial; may, 18., 9.82, §. 19. if in their opinion the public health requires it, close any.tomb, burial ground, cemetery or other place of burial within the city or town, for such length of time as they may deem necessary for the protection of the public health; may make all regulations which they judge necessary concerning burial grounds and interments within their respective limits, and may establish penalties not exceeding one hundred dollars for any breach of such regulations. The powers given to boards of health are large and general to make regulations for the interment of the dead and respecting buryinggrounds. Withington v. Inhabitants of Harvard, 8 Cush. 68. This section is not confined in its operation to acts done within the burial-grounds. The word "interments" properly includes and de scribes the removal of the bodies of deceased persons for the purpose of burial. That this necessary duty shall be performed, especially when undertaken for hire, by suitable and trustworthy persons, and that the moving of dead bodies through the public streets shall be conducted with decency and safety, are obviously matters proper for municipal regulation, and which, as well as the mode of burial, may concern the public health to no slight extent. Commonwealth v. Goodrich, 13 Allen, 546. The board of health of a city may establish a regulation prohibiting any person, unless appointed an undertaker or otherwise authorized by the board of health, from moving from any house or other place in the city to any place of burial the body of any deceased person, and making it the duty of undertakers to attend funerals when required, and to collect and pay over the burial fees, and requiring, further, each undertaker to give bonds in the sum of two hundred dollars. The refusal or neglect of a person appointed an undertaker to give the bond required by the regulation would justify the revocation of his appointment without any previous notice to him. Commonwealth v. Goodrich, 13 Allen, 546. to give notice of P. S., c. 82, § 20. 1816 140. Notice of such regulations shall be given by publish- Boards of health ing the same in some newspaper of the city or town or, if there regulations. is no such newspaper, by posting a copy in some public place therein; which shall be deemed legal notice to all persons. 141. For every interment in violation of section eighteen, Penalty for chapter eighty-two of the Public Statutes, in a city or town in which the notice prescribed in the preceding section has been given, the owner of the land so used shall forfeit not less than twenty nor more than one hundred dollars. 166 Sect. 18 of chap. 82, Public Statutes, provides that, Except in the case of the erection or use of a tomb on private land, for the exclusive use of the family of the owner, no land other than that already so used or appropriated shall be used for the purpose of burial, unless by permission of the town or of the mayor and aldermen of the city in which the same is situated." interments in violation of sec tion eighteen. P. S., c. 82, § 21. 1855 given before etc., by order of 142. Before a tomb, burial ground, or cemetery is closed by Notice to be order of such board of health for a time longer than one month, closing tombs, all persons interested shall have an opportunity to be heard, board. and personal notice of the time and place of hearing shall be P. S., c. 82, § 22. given to at least one owner of the tomb, and to three at least, 1855 if so many there are, of the proprietors of such burial ground or cemetery, and notice shall also be published two successive Appeal from order of board. P. S., c. 82, § 23. 1855 1859 To be tried by Burial or removal of body not permitted until certificate has been given. P. S., c. 32, § 5. 1883, 124. weeks at least preceding such hearing, in two newspapers, if so 143. The owner of a tomb aggrieved by the order of the board of health closing a tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery, may appeal therefrom, and at any time within six months from the date of the order enter his appeal in the superior court; and the appellant shall give the board of health fourteen days' notice of his appeal previous to the entry thereof. But the order of the board shall remain in force until a decision is had on the appeal. 144. Appeals shall be tried in regular course before a jury, and if the jury find that the tomb, burial ground or cemetery so closed was not a nuisance nor injurious to the public health at the time of the order, and that the closing thereof was not necessary for the protection of the public health, the court shall rescind such order so far as it affects such tomb, burial ground or cemetery; and execution for the costs of the appeal shall issue in favor of the appellant, against the city or town in which the same was situated. But if the order is sustained execution shall issue for double costs against the appellant in favor of the board of health for the use of the city or town. 145. No human body shall be buried or removed from any city or town until a proper certificate has been given by the clerk or registrar to the undertaker, sexton, or other person performing the burial or removing the body. Such certificate shall state that the facts required by chapter thirty-two of the Public Statutes have been returned and recorded; and no clerk or registrar shall give such certificate or burial permit until the certificate of the cause of death has been obtained from the physician, if any, in attendance at the last sickness of the deceased and placed in the hands of said clerk or registrar; and in cities and towns where there are boards of health, the certificate of the cause of death shall also be approved by such board before a permit to bury or remove is given by the registrar or clerk. Upon application, the chairman of the board of health, or any physician employed by any city or town for such purpose, shall sign the certificate of the cause of death to the best of his knowledge and belief, if there has been no physician in attendance. He shall also sign such certificate, upon application, in case of death by dangerous contagious disease, or in any other event when the certificate of the attending physician cannot for good and sufficient reasons be early enough obtained. In case of death by violence, the medical examiner attending shall furnish the requisite medical certificate. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars. of bodies of per died of infec any tious disease. Such bodies to be so prepared as to preclude 146. No railroad corporation, or other common carrier or Transportation person, shall convey or cause to be conveyed, through or from sons who have any city or town in this Commonwealth, the remains of person who has died of small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, or typhoid fever, until such body has been so encased and pre- danger. pared as to preclude any danger of communicating the disease 1883, 124, § 2. to others by its transportation; and no local registrar or clerk shall give a permit for the removal of such body until he has received from the board of health of the city, or the selectmen of the town where the death occurred, a certificate, stating the cause of death, and that said body has been prepared in the manner set forth in this section, which certificate shall be delivered to the agent or person who receives the body. Any Penalty. person violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by fine, not exceeding twenty-five dollars. 147. The boards of health of towns and the mayor and aldermen of cities shall, on or before the first day of July in each year, license a suitable number of undertakers to take charge of the funeral rites preliminary to the interment of a human body. 1887, 335. Undertakers to board of health. be licensed by P. S., c. 32, § 6. 1872 sepulture. 148. Whoever, not being authorized by the board of health, Violation of overseers of the poor, directors of a workhouse, or mayor and P.S., c. 207, § 47. aldermen or selectmen of a city or town, or by the board of directors for public institutions or overseers of the poor of the 1830 city of Boston, wilfully digs up, disinters, removes, or conveys away a human body or the remains thereof, or knowingly aids in such disinterment, removal, or conveying away, and whoever is accessory thereto either before or after the fact, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison or jail not exceeding three years or by fine not exceeding two thousand dollars. The removal of a dead body is not an offence within the meaning of the above statute, unless it is removed with the intent to use it or dispose of it for the purpose of dissection. Commonwealth v. Slack, 19 Pick. 306. Five or more persons may form a corpora, of incinerating tion for purpose dead bodies. 1885, 265, § 1. May hold real estate as ap proved by state board of health. 1885, 265, § 2. May make bylaws and rules subject to the approval of state board.. 1885, 265, § 3. No body to be cremated within 48 hours after death. Certifi examiner CREMATION. 149. Any five or more persons may associate themselves together in the manner prescribed by chapter one hundred and six of the Public Statutes, with a capital of not less than six thousand nor more than fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of providing the necessary appliances and facilities for the proper disposal by incineration of the bodies of the dead; and corporations so established shall have the same powers and privileges and be subject to the same duties, liabilities and restrictions as other corporations established under said chapter, except as hereinafter provided. The par value of shares in the capital stock of corporations organized under the provisions of this act shall be either ten or fifty dollars. 150. Every such corporation may acquire by gift, devise or purchase, and hold in fee simple so much real estate not exceeding in value fifty thousand dollars as may be necessary for carrying out the objects connected with and appropriate to the purposes of said corporation, and situated in such place as the state board of health may determine to be suitable for said objects and purposes. No building shall be erected, occupied or used by such corporation until the location and plans thereof, with all details of construction, have been submitted to and approved by said board or some person designated by it to examine them. 151. Every such corporation may make by-laws and regulations consistent with law and subject to the approval of said state board, for the reception and cremation of bodies of deceased persons, and for the disposition of the ashes remaining therefrom, and shall carry on all its business in accordance with such regulations as said board shall from time to time establish and furnish in writing to the clerk of the corporation, and for each violation of said regulations, it shall forfeit not less than twenty nor more than five hundred dollars. 152. No body of a deceased person shall be cremated within forty-eight hours after decease, unless.death was occacate of medical sioned by contagious or infectious disease; and no body shall be received or cremated by said corporation until its officers usual certificate. have received the certificate or burial permit required by law before burial, together with a certificate from the medical examiner of the district within which the death occurred, that required in addition to Fees of medical |