Incorporated cities or towns may adopt Articles III and IV. May appoint Health Officer in lieu of Board. Per capita or property tax, how levied. demics, or the existence of contagious or infectious diseases, may by an ordinance adopt for such city or town, in whole or in part, the provisions of Article IV of this Chapter for some definite period of time; and appoint therefor a Board of Health. NOTE. This Article vests in the local authorities power to provide necessary health regulations, or other sanitary measures, when epidemics or contagions prevail, or are approaching.-See Secs. 4046, Subd. 20, and 4408, Subd. 18, post. 3061. The Trustees, Council, or other corresponding Board of any incorporated town or city in this State, may by ordinance adopt the whole or any part of Articles III and IV of this Chapter, or of either of them, as provided in the preceding section for the Boards of Supervisors. NOTE.-See Sec. 4408, Subd. 18, post. Public notice of such ordinance should be given. 3062. In the place of appointing a Board of Health, the Board of Supervisors or the city or town authorities may appoint a Health Officer, with all the duties and powers of the Board of Health and Health Officer, as specified in the two preceding Articles. 3063. All necessary expenses of enforcing this Article are charges against the counties, cities, or towns respectively, for the payment of which the county, city, or town may levy a per capita tax of not exceeding three dollars or a property tax of not exceeding one fourth of one per cent yearly until the same is paid. NOTE.-The State's exercise of authority in the subject matter of this Chapter is not an interference with the power of Congress to regulate commerce. This has been frequently decided by our State and the Federal Courts. This Chapter, as also the Article on a kindred subject ("Sailors and Sailor Boarding Houses," Secs. 2583-2607, inclusive, ante,) is an exercise of the police powers of the State Government. The Act of 1869–70, which is continued and extended by the latter Article, was sustained on October 11th, 1872, by one of our State Courts, in the habeas corpus case of Henry Wilson, which came up before Judge Wheeler, of the Nineteenth District Court. The defendant, Wilson, was tried before the Police Court for boarding a vessel without proper authority, before she had been moored, according to the law of the State.-The sailor boarding house law, supra. He was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine, and suffer imprisonment until the fine should be paid. The defendant sued out a writ of habeas corpus before Judge Wheeler, which came up on Friday, October 22d, inst., at chambers. The defendant contended that the State law, under which the conviction was obtained, had been superseded and rendered void by the Act of Congress of June, 1872, which provided a punishment for the same offense, and made a Justice's Court a tribunal for its trial. On the part of the State it was contended that both laws were in force, and that an offender could be punished under either, and that the first Court taking jurisdiction could proceed to conviction; that the comity between the State and Federal Courts would preclude the offenders, once convicted, from being again tried under the other law for the same offense. In support of that position the case of the United States against Wells, in the United States District Court of the District of Minnesota, from the American Law Reports, of July, 1872, was cited. The defendant claimed that the State law was an attempt to regulate commerce, over which Congress alone had control, to which it was answered, that the matter of the State law was not of commerce, but only of police regulation. Judge Wheeler decided that the matter was only a police regulation, and that the law of Congress did not defeat or supersede the law of the State. The writ was dismissed, and the defendant remanded. CHAPTER III. REGISTRY OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS. SECTION 3074. Registry of marriages. 3075. Registry of births. 3076. Registry of deaths. 3079. Duties of Recorder. Registry of marriages. Registry of births. Registry of deaths. Reports to SECTION 3080. Report to Secretary of State and of Board of Health. 3081. Fees. 3082. Penalties. 3074. All persons who perform the marriage ceremony must keep a registry of the time of each marriage so celebrated, the residence, the names in full, the place of birth, the age and condition of each party, and whether either party has ever been before married; if so, to whom and whether the person with whom such former marriage was contracted is living or dead. NOTE.-An Act was passed April 26, 1858 (see Stats. 1858, p. 342), providing for a State registration of births, marriages, and deaths; amended March 12, 1859 (see Stats. 1859, p. 102), and was repealed April 27, 1860 (see Stats. 1860, p. 280). The object of the Act appeared to be more to provide an office than for the performance of useful duties; here the reverse is attempted. 3075. All physicians and professional midwives must keep a registry of the time of each birth at which they assist professionally, the sex, race, and color of the child, and the names and residence of the parents. 3076. Physicians who have attended deceased persons in their last sickness, clergymen who have officiated at a funeral, Coroners who hold inquests, and sextons who have buried deceased persons, must each keep a registry of the name, age, residence, and time of death of such person. 3077. All persons registering births or deaths must quarterly file with the County Recorder a certified copy of their register. All such certificates must specify as near as may be ascertained the name in full, age, occupation, term of residence in the city or county, birthplace, condition, whether single or married, widow or widower, race, color, last place of residence, and cause of death of all decedents. 3078. If at any birth no physician or midwife Same. attends, the parents must make the report. Recorder. 3079. The Recorder must keep separate registers, Duties of to be known as the "Register of Births" and the "Register of Deaths," in which the births and deaths certified to him must be numbered in the order in which they are reported to him. There must be stated in each register, in separate columns properly headed, the various facts contained in the certificates, and the name and official or clerical position of the person making the report. The Recorder must carefully examine each report and register the same birth or death but once, although it may be reported by different persons. Report to Secretary Health. 3080. The County Recorder must every three months transmit to the Secretary of the State Board of State of Health, at Sacramento City, a certified abstract of the registers of births, marriages, and deaths, prepared in the manner prescribed in the instructions of the Secretary and upon blanks to be furnished by him for that purpose. 3081. The persons reporting births and deaths to Fees. the Recorder must pay to him a fee of twenty-five cents for the registration of each name, which must be primarily paid by the parents or other next of kin to the person whose birth or death is reported. In case no fee is paid to the person reporting a birth or death to the Recorder by the parents or next of kin of the person reported, the same must nevertheless be reported and registered, and the Board of Supervisors must pay from the General Fund of the county to the Recorder a fee not exceeding twenty-five cents for each name reported. 73-VOL. I. Penalties. 3082. Any person on whom a duty is imposed by this Chapter who fails, neglects, or refuses to perform the same as herein required, is liable to a penalty of fifty dollars, to be recovered by the District Attorney of the proper county for the use of the General Fund of such county. NOTE. This Chapter was suggested by the Secretary of the State Board of Health, and is necessary for preserving proper statistics; to a certain extent it accords with the Political Code of New York and the laws of other States. The former statute on this subject was too cumbersome and expensive. This is economical, and supplies a deficiency which is much needed. Sec. 176 of the Penal Code Cal. punishes official neglect of duty; the duties here imposed are incidental to holding the office; the acceptance imposes the duty. Sec. 661, id., authorizes removal from office for such neglect. CHAPTER IV. DISSECTION. Physicians, etc., may obtain dead bodies. SECTION 3093. Physicians, etc., may obtain dead bodies. tain cases. 3094. Sheriffs, etc., to give dead bodies to physicians in cerWhen dead bodies are not to be given. 3095. Physicians, etc., to have certificate from Medical Society, and to give bond before receiving dead bodies. 3093. Any physician or surgeon of this State, or any medical student under the authority of any such physician or surgeon, may obtain, as hereinafter provided, and have in his possession human dead bodies, or the parts thereof, for the purposes of anatomical inquiry or instruction. NOTE.-Stats. 1870, p. 405. See Penal Code Cal., Secs. 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, and 295, on sepulture and dissection. 3094. Any Sheriff, Coroner, Keeper of a County Poorhouse, public Hospital, County Jail, or State Prison, or the Mayor or Board of Supervisors of the |