ART. 43] UNDERTAKERS. 1153

ness, employment or office, and before any person, co-partnership or
corporation now so engaged in said business of undertaking in this
State, and before any member of any such co-partnership, assistant or
employe of any such person, co-partnership or corporation or officer
of such corporation whose duties now engage him or her in the care,
preparation, disposition or burial of the dead, who shall have failed
to register with the said board in accordance with section 236, shall
then continue in such business such person, co-partnership or corpora-
tion, members of such co-partnerships and all assistants and employees
of any such person, co-partnerships or corporations and officers of such
corporations, whose duties engage him or her in the care, preparation,
disposition or burial of the dead, shall apply by petition to the said
board for a license to practice the same, which petition shall state
whether said applicant purposes to practice said business as a principal
or as an assistant or employee; thereupon the applicant as aforesaid
shall present himself or herself before said board at a time and place
to be fixed by said board, and if the said board shall find, upon due
examination, that the applicant is over twenty-one years of age and
has been employed at least two years prior to said application by some
person, firm or corporation actively engaged in the work of practical
embalming and undertaking and is of good moral character, possessed
of skill and knowledge of the said business, and has a reasonable knowl-
edge of sanitation, preservation of the dead, disinfecting the body of
a deceased person, the apartment, clothing and bedding in case of death
resulting from infectious or contagious disease, the board shall issue to
said applicant, upon the payment of a fee of twenty dollars, a license
to practice said business of undertaking in the State of Maryland, and
shall register such applicant as a duly licensed principal or assistant
undertaker in accordance with his or her application; provided, how-
ever, that said board may issue such a license to any person between
the ages of eighteen and twenty-one years, at its discretion; and pro-
vided, however, that such license shall be issued to a corporation upon
application therefor; and provided further that one license, as required
by this section and section 239, shall suffice for all the members of a
co-partnership when issued in the firm name, such license shall be
signed by a majority of the board and attested by its seal, and shall state
whether it be a principal's or assistant's license; no person holding an
assistant's or employee's license shall be permitted thereunder to engage
in or carry on the business of undertaking as a principal, and before any
person holding an assistant's or employee's license shall be entitled to
a principal's license, he shall apply for the same by petition to said
board, who shall grant the same under such rules and regulations
respecting said applicant's qualifications and character as may be pre-
scribed by said board; all persons, co-partnerships and corporations,
immediately upon receiving the license provided in this section and
section 239, or the certificate of registration as provided in section 236,
shall cause a copy of such license or certificate of registration to be
filed in the office of the local board of health of Maryland in the respec-
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