When our health bill came from the hands of Mr. Eaton it was evident in every line that he had made an exhaustive study of the English health code and had become thoroughly imbued with its spirit. The language was not altogether familiar, and in the involved sentences there were intimations of extraordinary powers quite unknown to our jurisprudence. When he brought the completed bill before the Legal and Medical councils for adoption it was subjected to a most searching criticism. While most of its sections were clear and readily understood, there were portions which were so obscure, owing to the methods of expression employed, that the legal members were in doubt as to the proper construction to be put upon them, while the medical members were altogether at a loss as to their meaning. [Sidenote: A Board With Extraordinary Powers] Mr. Eaton explained the theory of modern health legislation as illustrated by the English laws, and contended that a thoroughly organized and efficient board of health must have extraordinary powers, and must not be subordinated to any other branch of the civil service, not even to the courts. What it declared to be a nuisance--dangerous to life and detrimental to health--no one should call in question. When it ordered a nuisance to be abated within a given fixed time no mandate should avail to stay its action or the enforcement of its decree. A board of health, in his opinion, should make its own laws, execute its own laws, and sit in judgment on its own acts. It must be an _imperium in imperio_. England, the foremost country in the world in the cultivation of sanitary science and in the application of its principles to practice, had by its legislation for a quarter of a century established a precedent which it was right and safe for us to follow. He predicted that if this bill became a law its operations would be so beneficial that it would not only become very popular in this city, but that it would be the basis of future health legislation in this country. He believed, however, that no legislature would pass a bill containing such powers if these powers were made a prominent feature of the bill. For that reason he had adopted that involved expression peculiar to English law which required a judicial interpretation to determine the precise meaning. The bill was approved in the form presented by Mr. Eaton, and preparation was made to secure its passage. [Sidenote: The Fight for the Bill]