AN ACT 
Supplemental to an Act creating a State 
Board of Health. 
The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: 
Section 1. That the Medical Society of North Caro- 
lina shall choose from its active members, by ballot, six 
members, and the Governor shall appoint three other 
persons, (one of whom shall be a civil engineer,) and these 
shall constitute the North Carolina Board of Health. 
Sec. 2. That the North Carolina Board of Health shall 
take cognizance of the health interest of the citizens of 
the State; shall make sanitary investigations and en- 
quiries in respect to the people; the causes of diseases 
dangerous to the public health, especially epidemics; the 
sources of mortality ; the effects of locations, employments 
and conditions upon public health. They shall gather 
such information upon all these matters for distribution 
among the people, with the especial purpose of inform- 
ing them about preventable diseases. They shall be 
considered the medical advisers of the State, and are 
herein specially provided for, and shall advise the govern- 
ment in regard to the location, sanitary construction and 
management of all public institutions, and shall direct 
the attention of the State to such sanitary matters as in 
their judgment affect the industry, prosperity, health 
and lives of the citizens of the State. The secretary of 
the board shall make annually to the general sssembly, 
through the governor, a report of their work for the 
year. 
Sec. 3. The members of the Board of Health as elected 
by the State Medical Society, shall be chosen to serve, 
two for six years, two for four years, two for two years. 
Those appointed by the governor shall serve two years. 
In case of death or resignation the board will elect new 
members to fill the unexpired terms. 
North Carolina 
board of health. 
Duties of board. 
Secretary to make 
annual report. 
Term of office. 
Vacancy. 2 
Officers. 
Sec. 4. The state board shall have a president and 
secretary, who shall be treasurer, to be elected from the 
members comprising the board. The president shall 
serve two years, and the secretary and treasurer six years. 
The secretary and treasurer shall receive 
a year for his services, but the other members of the 
board shall receive no pay, except that while on actual 
duty at meetings of the board, or on duty during the 
time special investigations are being pursued, that each 
member shall receive $2.00 a day and necessary travel- 
ling expenses. These sums shall be paid by the treas- 
urer on duly authenticated requisitions signed approved 
by the president of the board. 
Sec. 5. There shall be an auxiliary board of health in 
each county in the State. These boards shall be com- 
posed of the physicians eligible to membership in the 
State Medical Society, the mayor of county 
town, the chairman of the county commissioners, and the 
city surveyor, where there is such an officer, otherwise the 
county surveyor. From this number one physician shall 
be chosen by ballot to serve two years, with the title of 
superintendent of health. His duties shall be to gather 
vital statistics upon a plan designated by the State Board 
of Health. He shall make the medico-legal 'post-mortem 
examinations for coroner’s inquests, and attend prisoners in 
jails, poor-houses and work-houses. Their reports shall be 
made regularly as advised by the State board through 
their secretary, and they shall receive and carry out as 
far as practicable such work as may be directed by the 
State Board of Health. 
Sec. 6. The salary of the county superintendent of health 
is to be paid out of the county treasury, upon requisition 
and proper voucher, as follows: The salary of the su- 
perintendent of health shall not exceed the amount paid 
by the city or county in 1878, for services rendered by 
the city or county for medical services to sick in jail, 
Compensation. 
County boards of 
health. 
County superin- 
tendent of health 
Duties. 
Compensation of 
superintendent. 3 
work house and poor house, and medical examinations 
for coroner’s inquests. 
Sec. 7. The organization of the North Carolina Board 
of Health shall be completed immediately after the pas- 
sage of this act, and not later than six months after the 
passage of the same. The biennial meetings for the 
election of officers, shall, after the meeting of organiza- 
tion, be for the county boards on the first day of January, 
and of State Board of Health on the first day of the an- 
nual meeting of the medical society of North Carolina. 
Sec. 8. Monthly returns of vital statistics upon a 
plan to be devised by the State Board of Health, shall be 
made by the county superintendents, and a failure to' 
report by the tenth of the month, for the preceding 
month, shall subject the delinquent superintendent to a 
fine of one dollar for each day of delinquency. 
Sec. 9. Inland quarantine shall be under the control 
of the county superintendent of health, who, acting by 
the advice of the local board, shall see that diseases dan- 
gerous to the public health, viz : small pox, scarlet fever, 
yellow fever and cholera, shall be properly quarantined 
or isolated, (at the expense of the city or town in which 
it occurs). Any violation of the rules promulgated on 
this subject by the superintendent of health shall subject 
the offender to a fine of twenty-five hundred dollars and 
imprisonment for not longer than twenty days in the county 
jail. In case the offender be stricken with disease for which 
he is quarantinable, he will be subject to the penalty on re- 
covery, without, in the opinion of the superintendent, it 
should be remitted. Quarantine of ports shall not be 
interfered with, but the officers of the local and State 
boards shall render all aid in their power to quarantine 
officers in discharge of their duties upon request of the 
latter. 
Sec. 10. Abatement of Nuisances.—Wherever and 
whenever a nuisance upon premises shall exist, which in 
the opinion of the county superintendent of health is 
Organization of 
state board. 
Meetings. 
County superin- 
tendent to make 
monthly returns 
of vital statistics. 
Penalty for fail- 
ure. 
Inland quarantine. 
Abatement of 
nuisances. 4 
dangerous to the public health, it shall be his duty to 
notify the parties occupying the premises, (or the owner 
of the premises if not occupied), of its existence, its char- 
acter, and the means of abating it, in writing. Upon 
this notification the parties shall proceed to abate the 
nuisance, but failing to do this shall pay a fine of one 
dollar a day dating from twenty-four hours after the noti- 
fication has been served: Provided, however, that if the 
party notified shall make oath or affimation before a 
magistrate of his or her inability to carry out the direc- 
tions of the superintendent, it shall be done at the ex- 
pense of the town or city. In the latter case the limit 
of the expense chargeable upon the town or city shall not 
be more than one hundred dollars in any case. 
Sec. 11. Vaccination.—The secretary of the state 
board of health shall keep a supply of fresh animal vac- 
cine virus at his command, and he shall issue quantities, 
in value not to exceed one dollar for one requisition, to 
county superintendents in case of a threatened outbreak 
of small pox. The county superintendents shall vacci- 
nate and re-vaccinate all applying for such service, free 
of charge, the virus for such purposes to be furnished by 
the secretary of the state board of health at market rates. 
The county superintendent shall vaccinate every per- 
son admitted into a public institution, (jail, work house, 
poor house, public shool), as soon as practicable, without 
he is satisfied upon examination that the person is already 
successfully vaccinated. On the appearance of a case of 
small pox in a neighborhood, all due diligence shall be 
used by the superintendent that warning shall be given, 
and all persons not able to pay, to be vaccinated free of 
charge by him. The vaccine for this purpose shall be 
paid for by the corporation in which the superintendent 
serves. 
Sec. 12. Bulletins of the outbreak of diseases danger- 
ous to the public health shall be issued by the State board 
Proviso, 
Vaccination, 
Small pox. 
Diseases danger- 
ous to public 
health. whenever necessary, and such advice freely disseminated 
to prevent and check the invasion of disease into any 
part of the State. It shall also be the duty of the board 
to enquire into any outbreak of disease, by personal visits 
or by any method the board shall direct. The expenses 
[compensation] of members on such duty shall be five 
dollars a day, and the necessary traveling expenses. 
Sec. 13. Special meetings of the State board of health 
may be called by the president, through the secretary. 
The regular annual meetings shall be held at the same 
time and place of the State medical society, at which 
time the secretary shall submit his annual report. 
Sec. 14. When the county superintendent of health 
shall in the course of his investigation required at coro- 
ner’s inquest, think it necessary to subserve the ends of 
justice that a chemical analysis of the viscera or fluids of 
the body be made, he shall carefully pack up and seal the 
suspected article in a proper receptable in the presence of 
a witness and forward it to the chemist of the agricultural 
station for analysis. (Such analysis shall be made free of 
charge, and be returned to the coroner of the county, 
such analysis having precedence over other matters of 
investigation not of a similar character, then in the labo- 
ratory of the chemist.) Analysis for purposes connected 
with the hygenic duties of the superintendent of health 
shall in like manner be made by the said chemist, upon 
requisition signed and approved by the secretary of 
the State board of health. Such analysis will include 
soil, drinking water, articles of food, air, &c., to be packed 
for transmission by direction of the chemist of the agri- 
cultural station. 
Sec. 15. For carrying out the provisions of this act 
two hundred dollars is hereby annually appropriated, to 
be paid on requisition signed by the treasurer and presi- 
dent of the State board of health, and the printing and 
stationery necessary annually for the board be furnished 
Duties of state 
board. 
Expenses. 
Special meetings. 
Annual meeting. 
Chemical analysis 
of bodies, when 
and how made. 
Annual appropria- 
tion of $200. 
Printing, &c. Annual statement 
of receipts, &c. 
on requisition upon the state printer. A yearly statement 
shall be made to the Legislature of all moneys received 
and expended in pursuance of this act. 
Sec. 16. All previous acts conflicting with this are 
hereby repealed upon the passage of this act. 
Ratified the 14th day of March, 1879.