e default in providing hospital accommodation, the county council
may put in operation the Isolation Hospitals Act. The power given to
provide hospitals must be exercised so as not to create a nuisance,
and much litigation has taken place in respect of the providing of
hospitals for smallpox. Up to the present time, however, the courts
have refused to accept as a principle that a smallpox hospital is
necessarily a source of danger to the neighbourhood, and for the most
part applications for injunction on that ground have failed.

Epidemics.

Where any part of the country appears to be threatened with or is
affected by any formidable epidemic, endemic or infectious disease,
the Local Government Board may make regulations for the speedy
interment of the dead, house-to-house visitation, the provision of
medical aid and accommodation, the promotion of cleansing, ventilation
and disinfection, and the guarding against the spread of disease. Such
regulations are made and enforced by the district councils. The
provisions of the Public Health Acts relating to infectious disease
are for the most part extended to ships by an act of the year 1885.

Mortuaries.

District councils may, and if required by the Local Government Board,
must provide mortuaries, and they may make by-laws with respect to the
management and charges for the use of the same. Where the body of a
person who has died of an infectious disease is retained in a room
where persons live or sleep, or the retention of any dead body may
endanger health, any justice on the certificate of a medical
practitioner may order the removal of a body to a mortuary and direct
the body to be buried within a time limited by the friends of the
deceased or in their default by the relieving officer. A district
council may also provide and maintain a proper place (otherwise than
at a workhouse or at a mortuary) for the reception of dead bodies
during the time required to conduct any _post mortem_ examination
ordered by a coroner.

Cemeteries.

Under an act of 1879 the district council have power to provide and
maintain a cemetery either within or without their district, and they
may purchase or accept a donation of land for that purpose. The
provisions of the Cemeteries Clauses Act 1847 apply to a cemetery thus
provided. These cannot all be referred to here, but it may be noted
that no part of