Health

Health in United Kingdom

Meaning of Health

The following is an old definition of Health [1]: Exemption from disease; freedom from sickness or pain; exemption from prevailing or unusual disease or contagion. A person is ” healthy ” who is free from disease or, bodily ailment, or that state of the system peculiarly susceptible or liable to disease or bodily ailment. The degree of health ordinarily enjoyed by men in health, and the physical ability which men of sound bodies ordinarily possess, places one in the class of the “healthy and able-bodied,” within the meaning of poor-laws, although there may be casual or temporary illness, or bodily unsoundness. ” Sound health,” as used in contracts for life insurance, does not mean absolute freedom from bodily infirmity or tendency to disease. See Intemperate. Public health. The wholesome sanitary condition of the community at large; the exemption of a municipality or region from any prevailing and unusual disease or mortality; general health: health of the people. Laws to secure the general health of the people at large are called “public-health laws;” and the officers charged with administering them, the ” public-health board,” or “public-health officers,” or, briefly, the ” health-board ” or ” health-oflicers.” Bill of bealth. A certificate given by the authorities of the port from which a vessel clears, showing the state of the public health at the port. Clean hill of health. A certificate that no infectious disease exists; opposed to a touched or suspected bill, or a bill actually foul. Board of healtli. A board of officials specially charged with the preservation of the general health of the people at large. Their jurisdiction is, ordinarily, a municipalily, or a State. National Board of Health Established by act of Congress of March 3, 1879, oh. 202, g 1 (20 St. L. 484). Consists of seven members appointed by the President, and four members detailed from the departments. Their duties are to obtain information upon all matters affecting the public health, to advise the heads of departments and State executives, to make necessary investigations at any place in the United States, or at foreign ports, and to make rules guarding against the introduction of contagious diseases into the country and their spread from State to State. The preservation of the public health is one of the chief purposes of local government. Hence, municipal corporations are liberally endowed with power to prevent and abate nuisances. Public policy requires that health-officers be not disturbed in the exercise of their powers, unless clearly transcending their authority. All sanitary cordons and preventive regulations come under the right of preventing more serious injuries by stifling the sources of evil. In doing this, health-officers must not interfere with the natural rights of individuals. Power in boards of health to abate nuisances and the causes of them, and to enforce sanitary regulations, are very great. The courts have excused an excessive exercise of power in cases where there was great peril to the public health. But an exercise which is clearly unlawful, and has no great public necessity to excuse it, will be restrained, however praiseworthy the motive. The people ” shall be secure in their persons and houses from unreasonable searches and seizures.” By statute of 1 James I (1603J, c. 31, a person infected with the plague, or dwelling in an infected house, could be compelled to keep his house. If he went into company, he could be punished by whipping, be bound to good behavior, or be adjudged guilty of felony. By 26 Geo. 11 (1753), c. 26, quarantine of ships from infected countries was regulated. In England the public health is secured by various statutes, principally by the Public Health Act, 11 and 12 Vict. (1848), c. 63, the Local Grovernment Acts of 1858, and amendments thereto. These statutes give large powers to the local authorities for removing nuisances, regulating burials, checking the sale of injurious food and drink, and otherwise preventing disease. The preservation of health is an absolute right of personal security. Injuries to a man’s health occur when, by any unwholesome practices of another, a man sustains any apparent damage in his vigor or constitution: as, by the sale of bad provisions, by the exercise of a noisome trade, or by the neglect or unskillful management of his physician, surgeon, or apothecary. For such, a special action of trespass on the case for damages lies. An act (supplementary) of New Jersey, approved March 12, 1880, makes animals with, contagious diseases common nuisances; another act (also supplementary), approved March 12, 1884, makes horses affected with glanders common nuisances; and both acts authorize destruction of the animals under prescribed conditions. Held, that the acts are within the police powers of the State; that they are not within the prohibition of the Fourteenth Amendment, because, although they authorize the abatement of nuisances in advance of a judicial adjudication of the fact of nuisance, yet they do not make the determination as to that fact conclusive, and only permit acts, in abating a particular nuisance, to be justified by proof of its actual existence; thirdly, that the, conditions under which the officials may act, by the statute of 1880, are mere limitations upon their power for the benefit of the owners of animals, and their adjudication that such conditions exist will not protect them, unless the existence of the common nuisance is shown. See Adulterate; Disease; Police; Quarantine; Sound, 2 (2).

Most Popular Entries related to Health

Some Popular Entries in the European Legal Encyclopedia related to Health

Resources

Notes and References

  1. Concept of Health provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)

Posted

in

,

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *