duties and sanitary science to be the secretary and executive officer of the board, who has all the powers and privileges of a member of the board except in regard to voting upon matters relating to his own office and duties as secretary, and he holds office for three years, but may be removed for cause after a full hearing by the board, a majority of the members voting therefor. The board may adopt by-laws, and provide therein for the appointment of committees, in whom it shall delegate authority and power for the work committed to them, and it may adopt and use an official seal. Five members consti

tute a quorum. The secretary keeps a record of the acts and proceedings of the board, performs and superintends the work prescribed by law, and such other duties as the board may order, and receives an annual salary of $3000, and such necessary expenses are allowed him as the comptroller audits on the presentation of an itemised account having vouchers annexed, together with the certificate of the board.

The state board of health takes cognisance of the interests of health and life among the people of the state, makes inquiries in respect to the cause of disease, and especially of epidemics, and investigates the sources of mortality, and the effects of localities, employments, and other conditions upon the public health. It is its duty to obtain, collect, and preserve such information relating to deaths, diseases, and health as may be useful in the discharge of its duties, and contribute to the promotion of the health or the security of life in the State of New York. And it is the duty of all health officers and boards of health in the state to communicate to this state board copies of all their reports and publications, also such sanitary information as may be useful. The state board of health has the

| general supervision of the state system of registration of births, marriages, and deaths, and also the registration of prevalent diseases. Its secretary is the superintendent of registration of vital statistics of the state. The state board issues transfer permits to be issued by local organised boards of health for the transportation of the dead bodies of persons which are to be carried for burial beyond the limits of the counties where the death occurs, and coupons must be attached to these permits, which are detached and preserved by every common carrier, or the person in charge of any vessel, railroad train, or vehicle to whom such dead bodies are delivered for transportation. The governor may require the state board of health to examine into nuisances or questions affecting the security of life and health in any locality, and the report, when approved by the governor, is filed in the office of the secretary of state, and the governor may act upon such report and enforce his orders. At any time, at the request of the state board, or whenever the governor directs an examination and report as stated, any board of health of any city may appoint and select any one of its officers as its representative during such examination of any nuisance, who shall have a seat at and be entitled to take part in all deliberations of the state board during such investigation, but without the right to vote. The state board may from time to time engage suitable persons to render sanitary service, and to make or supervise practical and scientific investigations and examinations requiring expert skill, and to prepare plans and report relative thereto. The members of the board, and such other officers and persons authorised by the board, may, without let or hindrance, enter, examine, and survey all grounds, erections, vehicles, structures, apart

But

ments, buildings, and places. no more than $5000 in any one year shall be expended for such special sanitary service.

It is the duty of the state board, on or before the first Monday of December in each year, to make a report in writing to the governor of the state upon the vital statistics and the sanitary condition and prospects of the state; and this report sets forth the action of the board and of its officers and agents, and the names thereof for the past year, and may contain other useful information and suggestions for legislative action, &c., also a detailed statement of moneys paid out, &c.; but its total expenditures shall not exceed $15,000 in any one year. This sum of $15,000 is appropriated from the general fund for the purpose mentioned.

Laws of 1881, chap. 298. It is the duty of all employers of females

in any mercantile or manufacturing business or occupation to provide and maintain suitable seats for their use, and to permit them to use such seats to such an extent as may be reasonable for the preservation of their health.

There are numerous general regulations and statutes concerning the practice of physic and surgery, medical societies and their incorporation, medical universities and colleges, promoting medical science, regulating county medical schools, to incorporate homoeopathic medical societies, the state homœopathic medical society, the medical society of the State of New York, the licensing of physicians and surgeons, &c.

There are general regulations and statutes concerning the practice of dentistry, &c., and some affecting apothecaries and druggists.

According to article ix. of the state constitution (1846) the capital of (1) the common school fund, (2) the literature fund, and (3) the United States deposit fund, were to be respectively preserved inviolate. The revenues of the first were to be applied to the support of common schools, the revenues of the second to the support of academies, and the sum of $25,000 of the revenues of the third was each year to be appropriated to and made part of the capital of the first. This common school fund consists of the proceeds of all lands which belonged to the state on 1st January 1823 (except such parts thereof reserved or appropriated to public use or ceded to the United States), together with what was denominated the common school fund. The capital of this fund has been increased by payments (author

ised by Acts of the legislature) out of the income of the United States deposit fund. In 1837 the state agreed, by Act of its legislature, to receive in deposits for safe-keeping its share of the surplus money of the Treasury of the United States, under the 13th section of the Act of Congress, entitled "An Act to regulate the deposits of the public money,” passed June 23, 1836, upon the terms, conditions, and provisions in said Act contained; and the faith of the state was inviolably pledged for the safekeeping and repayment of all sums of money thus received from time to time, whenever the same should be required by the secretary of the Treasury of the United States, under the provisions of said Act. The state legislature, by chap. 150, laws of 1837, directed that this share of the United States surplus money should

ered to invest such surplus moneys in like manner as the moneys of the common school fund.

Laws of 1847, chap. 258, provided that the treasurer should keep a separate book account for all moneys that might belong to the United States deposit fund, and a like separate account for moneys of the literature fund; and the interest received on said accounts should be carried at the close of each fiscal year to the credit of the income of each respectively.

There are numerous Acts of the state legislature bearing upon the subject of public instruction, which embraces the University of the State of New York, colleges, academies, seminaries, colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanical arts, the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New York, medical colleges, Columbia College, Union College, Cornell University, normal schools, incorporated schools, common schools, union free schools, schools for the instruction of indigent deaf and dumb, and of children in orphan asylums, of Indians, of idle and truant children, of a nautical school in New York harbour, &c., &c.

Chap. 555, laws of 1864, "An Act to revise and consolidate the general Acts relating to public instruction," is now the foundation of the system as regards common schools, &c., but there are also subsequent Acts.

He ap

some person to fill the office until the superintendent is elected and assumes it. The superintendent has a seal. The school commissioner for each school commissioner district is elected by the electors thereof by separate ballot at the general election, and his term of office is for three years. There is raised by tax in each year, upon the real and personal estate of each county, one mill and one-fourth of a mill upon each and every dollar of the equalised valuation of such estate for the support of common schools in the state, and the moneys so raised are paid into the state treasury, and the treasurer may transfer them from one depository to another by his draft, countersigned and entered by the superintendent of public instruction. The comptroller may withhold the payment of any moneys to which any county may be entitled from the appropriation of the incomes of the school fund and the United States deposit fund for the support of common schools, until satisfactory evidence is furnished to him that all moneys required by law to be raised by taxation upon such county for the support of schools throughout the state have been collected and paid or accounted for to the state treasurer. Whenever, in consequence of the failure of any county to pay such moneys, there is a deficiency of money in the treasury applicable to the payment of school moneys to which any other county is entitled, the treasurer and superintendent may make a temporary loan of the amount so deficient; and such loan and the interest thereon, at the rate of 12 per cent per annum, until payment is made to the treasury, is a charge upon the county in default, and is added to the amount of state tax and levied upon such county by the board of supervisors thereof at

paid into the treasury in the same manner as other taxes. The moneys raised by the state tax, or borrowed as aforesaid to supply a deficiency thereof, and such portion of the income of the United States deposit fund as is appropriated, and the income of the common school fund, when the same are appropriated to the support of common schools, constitute the state school moneys, and are divided and apportioned by the superintendent of public instruction, on or before the 20th day of January in each year, as follows; and all moneys so appropriated, except the literary moneys, are applied exclusively to the payment of teachers'

wages.

The superintendent pays (1) from the free school fund the annual salaries of the school commissioners ; (2) to each of the cities, and to each of the incorporated villages having a population of 5000 and upwards, which under a special Act employs a superintendent of common schools, or a clerk of the board of education who does the duty of supervision, and if insufficient the deficiency is paid from the free school fund, the sum of $800; and in case any city is entitled to more than one member of assembly, according to the unit of representation adopted by the legislature, $500 for each additional member of assembly, to be expended according to law for the support of the common schools of the city. There is then (3) paid from the income of the United States deposit fund for, and as library moneys, such sum as the legislature appropriates for that purpose; (4) from the free school fund a sum not exceeding $4000 for a contingent fund. The superintendent then (5) sets apart and apportions for and on account of the Indian schools under his supervision a sum equitably equivalent to their

proportion of the state school money, upon the basis of distribution established by this Act, to be wholly payable out of the proceeds of the state tax for the support of common schools. After deducting these amounts he (6) divides the remainder of the state school moneys into two parts, one to be one-third and the other to be two-thirds of such remainder, and apportions them as follows, viz.: (1) The one-third equally among the school districts and cities from which reports have been received in accordance with law, as follows: to entitle a district to a distributive portion or district quota, a qualified teacher, or successive qualified teachers, must have actually taught the common school of the district for at least the term of time hereinafter specified during the last preceding school year. For every additional qualified teacher, and his successors, who have actually taught in said school during the whole of said term, the district is entitled to another distributive portion or quota; but pupils employed as monitors or otherwise are not deemed teachers. The aforementioned term is twenty-eight weeks of five school days each, inclusive of NewYear's day, Washington's birthday, the fourth day of July, Christmas day, and any other day which is by law declared a holiday, which occurs during the term. A deficiency, not exceeding three weeks during the year, caused by a teacher's attendance upon a teacher's institute within the county, is excused. (2) The superintendent apportions the two-thirds, and also the library moneys, separately among the counties of the state, according to their respective population, excluding Indians residing on their reservations, as the same appears from the last preceding state or United States census; but as to