HEALTH 1803

may fix the salary of any county officer appointed subject to the provisions
of this section, without regard to the provisions of Section 48 of this Arti-
cle. This section shall not apply to Charles County and St. Mary's
County.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 52. 1912, sec. 40. 1904, sec. 29. 1888, sec. 14. 1886, ch. 22, sec. 7.

1920, ch. 314.

52. Whenever any local or county health officer shall receive reliable
notice, or shall otherwise have reason to believe that there is within the
limits of his sanitary jurisdiction a case of cholera, smallpox or other dis-
ease dangerous to the public health, he shall immediately report such notice
to the local board of health, and upon obtaining the approval of such local
board of health investigate the matter and take all proper steps for the re-
striction or suppression of such disease or diseases; and the local boards of
health shall incur and pay, as other expenses are paid, the necessary and
legitimate expenses thereof; he shall promptly notify the Director of the
State Board of Health of the existence of any epidemic or unusual sick-
ness or mortality that may come to his knowledge within his own sanitary
jurisdiction or contiguous thereto, and when thus informed, it shall be the
duty of the Director of the State Board of Health to co-operate with and
aid the local health authorities in making scientific and practical investiga-
tion into the cause or causes of any existing disease, and in devising the
most efficient means for its restriction or suppression or for the exclusion
of any threatened disease, and to take such steps as may be necessary to
prevent the spread of such disease or diseases; and to this end he may exer-
cise all the powers of the State Board of Health.

Cited but not construed in Gordon v. Montgomery County, 164 Md. 213.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 53. 1922, ch. 271.

53. Any physician called to attend a person suffering with any disease
embraced within the provisions of Section 52 of this Article shall have
the power to exercise all the powers conferred by said section upon the
health officers of the several counties to restrict or suppress such disease or
diseases until the health officer of the county wherein said disease may oc-
cur shall investigate the matter as directed in Section 52. Said attend-
ing physician may exercise said power without securing the prior approval
of the board of health of the county; but said power shall be exercised only
during the emergency existing until the county health officer shall make
his investigation, and immediately upon said investigation, the power
hereby conferred upon the attending physician shall cease. This section
shall not apply to Baltimore City.

Infectious Diseases—Small-Pox.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 54. 1912, sec. 41. 1904, sec. 30. 1888, sec. 15. 1882, ch. 155, sec 1

1920, ch. 496, sec. 41.

54. When any local health officer is of the opinion that the cleansing
and disinfecting of any house or part thereof, and of articles therein would
tend to prevent or check infectious diseases, it shall be the duty of such
health officer to cause such house or parts thereof and articles to be cleansed
and disinfected; and the city, town or county in which such house is situ-
ated shall defray the expenses thereof.

Any local health officer may direct the disinfection or destruction of any
bedding, clothing or other articles which have been exposed to infection