was in turn received into a brook; under these circumstances the watercourse was a 'sewer.'1

The distinction between < drain' and sewer' Distinction be

tween sewer

just detailed does not hold good in all places and and drain— under all circumstances.

Metropolis

ment Act.

In the Metropolis there is a power given by the (a) Under the Local Management Act to drain, with the sanction Local Manageof the local authority, a block of houses by a combined operation; in this case the combined drain remains a drain.

Section of the

Acts Amendment Acts.

So, again, in Urban Districts which have adopted (6) Under 19th the 19th Section of the Public Health Acts Amend- Public Health ment Acts, the interpretation of drain is a different one. Under that 19th Section, if the houses A, B, C, and D (p. 7) all belonged to the same owner, the combined drain would be, as under the Public Health Act, 1875, a sewer; but, if the houses A, B, C, D belonged to more than one owner, then the combined drain is a drain repairable at the owners' expense. This amendment of the law appears to the writer confusing, and not likely to work well. As it stands, suppose the owner of

1 The case of Meader v. The West Cowes Local Board, Court of Appeal, L.T. vol. 67, n.s. 454, is instructive. A builder, 'Meader,' built ten houses within the Urban District of West Cowes, and drained these houses into a cesspit by a 6-inch pipe, the cesspit itself being about 4 feet wide and 6 feet deep. The overflow from the cesspit was carried off by another line of pipes across the land of a Mr. Ward, without Ward's consent. Ward blocked this overflow pipe up, Meader then commenced an action against the Local Board to force them to abate the nuisance, on the ground that the cesspit was part of a sewer, and therefore within Section 13 and Section 4 of the Public Health Act. The action was tried before Chitty J., who held that the nuisance was caused by the cesspit, that the cesspit was not a part of a sewer within the meaning of the Act, and dismissed the action. On appeal the decision was affirmed.

Definition of 'Canal.'

Definition of 'canal boat.'

the four cottages sell one, the ownership of the sewer at once passes to the two owners, viz., the owner of the three and the owner of the one cottage, and the sewer changes into a drain. Which is absurd.

The only other definitions which need special attention are two, under the Canal Boats Act, viz., 'canal' and 'canal boat.'

""Canal" includes any river, inland navigation, lake or water, being within the body of a county whether it is, or is not, within the ebb or flow of the tide.'

6.66

Canal boat" means any vessel, however propelled, which is used for the conveyance of goods along a canal as above defined, and which is not a ship duly registered under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and the Acts amending the same.'

Section 10 of the Canal Boats Act of 1884 still further amends this definition by giving power to the Local Government Board to bring within the definition certain vessels, or classes of vessels, even though they be registered under the Merchant Shipping Act, if it is represented to them by the Sanitary Authority, or any Inspector, that it is desirable to do so.

LECTURE II.

NUISANCE

NUISANCES, in a legal sense, admit of the following Classification classification:

I. NUISANCE AT COMMON LAW.

of Nuisances.

(a) Public.

(b) Private.

(c) Mixed, that is, both public and private.

II. STATUTORY NUISANCES UNDER THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITARY ACTS.

It is the latter class of nuisances alone that con cern the officers of sanitary authorities; at the same time, a clear notion should be acquired of the differences between nuisance under the Public Health Act and nuisance under the Common Law:

I. NUISANCE AT COMMON LAW.

(a) Public or Common.

Common Law

The kind of nuisance under the Common Law, Nuisance at known as public,' is better comprehended by (a) Public or example than definition. Examples of acts which

Common.

Sic utere tuo ut aliaenum non laedas.

Examples of

private nuisances, all taken from actual cases, are the following:

Special annoyance from smoke, or from noise, such as the noise of a dynamo machine, of steam-hammers, of the rattling of milk cans, and similar matters, have all been considered as an interference with proprietary rights of an owner of land.

(c) Mixed.

ances under the

It is obvious, from what has been previously stated, (c) Mixed Nuisthat the above, i.e. noise, smoke, and so forth, may Common Law. often belong to both the classes of public and private nuisance, that is to say, that the noise of a steamhammer may cause inconvenience or damage to the public, in their common right, to enjoy a reasonable amount of quiet possessed by all Her Majesty's subjects; and, on the other hand, a private individual, living close to the locality of the steam-hammer, may be specially affected, and therefore have a right of action.

II. STATUTORY NUISANCES UNDER THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITARY ACTS.

Statutory nuisances relating to the Public Health are, as a rule, embraced in the following definition :

Nuisance under

Health Act.

'A nuisance is something which either actually Definition of injures, or is likely to injure, health, and admits of a the Public remedy, either by the individual whose act or omission causes the nuisance, or by the local authority.'