The original draft having been approved by the Committee on Health, Mr. Eaton was requested to perfect the bill by adding the legal provisions. As he had recently made a study of the English health laws, he incorporated many items especially relating to the powers of the Board which were quite novel in this country. [Sidenote: An Anomaly in Law] One feature of the bill deserves mention; for it is an anomaly in legislation and apparently violates the most sacred principle of justice; viz., the power of the courts to review the proceedings of a health board. The Committees concluded that a board which was authorized to abate nuisances “dangerous to life and detrimental to health” should not be subjected to the possible liability of being interrupted in its efforts to abate them by an injunction that would delay its action. Accordingly the law as so drawn that the Metropolitan Board was empowered to create ordinances, to execute them in its own time and manner, and to sit in judgment on its own acts, without the possibility of being interrupted by review proceedings or injunctions by any court. Its power was made autocratic. The language of that portion of the bill conveying these powers was purposely made very technical, in order that only a legal mind could interpret its full meaning, it being believed that the ordinary legislator would not favor the measure if he understood its entire import. It is an interesting fact that the first case brought into court under the law was an effort to prove the unconstitutionality of this feature; but it was carried to the Court of Appeals, and its constitutionality was sustained by a majority of one. [Sidenote: Introduction of an Epoch-Making Bill] On the assembling of the Legislature of 1865 the Metropolitan Health Bill was formally introduced into both houses, and preparations made to secure its passage. Mr. Eaton was selected by the Citizens’ Association to advocate the legal provisions of the bill at the hearings before the committees of the Legislature, and I was delegated to explain the sanitary requirements of the measure. The first hearing occurred on the thirteenth of February, before a joint committee of both houses, Hon. Andrew D. White, senator, presiding. A large audience was present, including the City Inspector and the usual retinue of office holders in his department. The Citizens Association was represented by Rev. Henry W. Bellows, Dr. James R. Wood, Dr. Willard Parker, Prof. John W. Draper, and several other prominent citizens, in addition to Mr. Eaton and myself. Mr. Eaton first addressed the committee, and made an admirable presentation of the legal features of the bill. He eloquently appealed for its enactment into law, in order to create in New York a competent health authority, with power to relieve the city of its gross sanitary evils and adopt and enforce measures for the promotion of the public health.