430 LAWS OF MARYLAND.

have been or which shall hereafter be prescribed by the general
laws of this State for secretaries of local Boards of Health,
for which services they shall receive no further compensation;
they shall have general care of the sanitary interests of the
residents of their respective districts, and shall make sanitary
investigation and inquiries respecting the causes of disease,
especially epidemics, and the causes of mortalities; they shall
inquire into and investigate all nuisances affecting the health of
the citizens of all towns or villages within their respective dis-
tricts, and for this purpose they are authorized to go upon any
premises or into any house in any town or village, and upon a
full report of either of them to the County Commissioners of
the existence of any public or private nuisance in any town or
village or in the vicinity thereof, they are authorized and em-
powered, upon the approval and direction of said County Com-
missioners, to apply to the Circuit Court for Baltimore Coun-
ty, or to either of the judges of said court, by bill or petition,
in the name of any of said sanitary officers, for an injunction to
restrain and prevent such nuisance; or upon the said report of
said sanitary officers of the existence of a nuisance, any of the
said sanitary officers may be directed by the County Commis-
sioners to give notice to the owner or occupier of any land or
premises upon which said nuisances may exist, to remove the
same within forty-eight hours after the service of said notice,
and upon the failure, neglect or refusal of the owner or occu-
pier of any land or premises to comply with said notice, such
owner or occupier shall forfeit and pay for any such neglect or
refusal the sum of twenty-five dollars; and any of said sanitary
officers, upon said neglect or refusal to remove said nuisance,
shall cause the same to be removed at the expense of the owner
or occupier shall forfeit and pay for any such neglect or refusal
the sum of twenty-five dollars, and any of said sanitary officers,
upon said neglect or refusal to remove said nuisance, shall
cause the same to be removed at the expense of the owner or
occupier of said land or premises; said fine and expense of re-
moval shall be collected by an action of debt before a justice of
the peace of said county in the name of any of the said sanitary
officers for the use of the County Commissioners.

171. If any person shall knowingly obstruct or resist any of
the said sanitary officers in the execution of their powers or in
the performance of their duties, such person shall be deemed to
be guilty of misdemeanor, and upon indictment and conviction
in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, shall be fined not
less than twenty dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars,
or be imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, for not more
than thirty days.