Chap. 179.—An ACT to authorize the State board of health to adopt, promul-
gate and enforce rules and regulations for the betterment and protec-
tion of the public health of the State of Virginia.

Approved March 14, 1910.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the State
board of health shall have the power to make, adopt, promulgate and en-
force reasonable rules and regulations from time to time requiring and
providing for the thorough sanitation and disinfection of all passenger
cars, sleeping cars, steamboats, and other vehicles of transportation in
this State, and also of all convict camps, penitentiaries, jails, hotels,
schools and other places used by or open to the public; to provide for
the care, segregation and isolation of persons having, or suspected of
having, anv communicable, contagious or infectious disease; to regulate
the method of disposition of garbage or sewage and any other refuse mat-
ter in or near any incorporated town, city, or unincorporated town or vil-
lage of this State; to provide for the thorough investigation and study of
the causes of all diseases, epidemics and otherwise, in this State, and the
means for the prevention of contagious disease, and the publication and
distribution of such information as may contribute to the preservation
of the public health, and the prevention of disease; to make separate
orders and rules to meet any emergency, not provided for by general
rules and regulations, for the purpose of suppressing nuisances danger-
ous to the public health and communicable, contagious and infectious
diseases and other dangers to the public life and health: provided, how-
ever, that nothing herein contained shall be construed as in anywise
preventing or restricting any person so segregated or isolated from choos-
ing his own method of treatment, or in anywise limiting any diseased
person in his right to choose or select whatever method or mode of treat-
ment he may believe to be the most efficacious in the cure of his ailment:
provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be construed as in
anywise limiting any duty, power or powers now possessed by or here-
tofore granted to the said State board of health by the statutes of this
State, or as affecting, modifying or repealing any rule or regulation here-
tofore adopted by said board.

2. That any person who shall violate, disobey, refuse, omit or neglect
to comply with any rule of said State board of health, made by it in pur-
suance of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof shall be punished in-the manner provided by law: provided, how-
ever, that nothing herein contained shall apply to any railroad or sleeping
car company whose system of sanitation and disinfectien of its cars 1s
approved by the State board of health.