by certain inhabitants of the town of Winchester, requesting that the Board cause suitable rules and regulations to permit fishing in certain reservoirs owned and used as a source of water supply by the town of Winchester. The facts as presented by the communication of the Board and the papers annexed thereto, so far as material, appear to be substantially as follows Under the provisions of St. 1872, c. 265, and St. 1873, c. 277, the town of Winchester was authorized to construct, own and maintain reservoirs in the territory lying along the easterly side of the town within its limits and in the adjoining towns of Medford and Stoneham, and subsequently did construct, and now owns and maintains, three reservoirs on small streams which are the headwaters of certain tributaries of the Aberjona River or Mystic Lake. One of these reservoirs, known as the North Reservoir, is situated partly in Stoneham and partly in Winchester; another, the South Reservoir, is wholly within the limits of the city of Medford, and the Middle Reservoir is situated chiefly in Stoneham but partly also in Winchester and Medford. A large part of the area which constitutes the watershed of these reservoirs is the property of the town of Winchester and the remaining portion of these watersheds is within the limits of the metropolitan parks reservation. I am advised, and, therefore, assume, that the town of Winchester owns in fee the beds of the several reservoirs and the land surrounding them, and that none of the three is a great pond or charged with any of the public rights to which, in the absence of restrictive legislation, great ponds are subject. On April 1, 1909, acting upon the petition of the water and sewer board of the town of Winchester, the State Board of Health adopted certain rules and regulations for the purpose of preventing the pollution and securing the sanitary protection of the three reservoirs above mentioned. These rules were adopted under authority of R. L., c. 75, § 113, and, among other things, provided: 13. No person shall bathe in, and no person shall, unless permitted by a written permit of the water and sewer board of the town of Winchester, fish in, or send, drive or put any animal into, North Reservoir, so called, in the towns of Stoneham and Winchester, Middle Reservoir, so called, in the towns of Stoneham and Winchester and the city of Medford, or South Reservoir, so called, in the city of Medford, said reservoirs being used by the town of Winchester as sources of water supply. No person other than a member, officer, agent or employee of said water and sewer board, or public officer whose duties may so require, shall, unless so permitted by a written permit of said board, enter or go, in any boat, skiff, raft or other contrivance, on or upon the water of either of said reservoirs, nor shall enter or go upon, or drive any animal upon, the ice of either of said reservoirs. The granting and withholding of permits required by rules 13 and 14 is hereby delegated by the State Board of Health to the water and sewer board of the town of Winchester. The petition filed with the State Board of Health recites that "at divers times since the adoption of the aforesaid Rules and Regulations by said State Board of Health, they (the petitioners) have made application to the water and sewer board of the town of Winchester for permits to fish in said reservoirs, but that said Board has always refused to grant the same," and that a petition presented to said Board by the same petitioners, requesting that permission to fish might be issued under rules and regulations which should be sufficient to preserve the purity of the water, was refused by the Winchester Water and Sewer Board. The petition then prays that the State Board cause to be prepared forthwith suitable rules and regulations under which fishing in said reservoirs may be carried on, and that said Winchester water and sewer board, or such other board or boards, individual or individuals, as may in the judgment of this Board be deemed expedient, be directed to grant such permits in accordance with such rules and regulations." 66 The jurisdiction of the State Board of Health in the premises is founded upon the provisions of R. L., c. 75, § 113, which, as amended by St. 1907, c. 467, § 1, provides as follows: Said board may cause examinations of such waters to be made to ascertain their purity and fitness for domestic use or their liability to impair the interests of the public or of persons lawfully using them or to imperil the public health. It may make rules and regulations to prevent the pollution and to secure the sanitary protection, of all such waters as are used as sources of water supply. Said board may delegate the granting and withholding of any permit required by such rules or regulations to state boards and commissions and to selectmen in towns and to boards of health, water boards and water commissioners in cities and towns, to be exercised by such selectmen, boards and commissions, subject to such recommendation and direction as shall be given from time to time by the state board of health; and upon complaint of any person interested said board shall investigate the granting or withholding of any such permit and make such orders relative thereto as it may deem necessary for the protection of the public health. While the duty of the State Board of Health under this and the preceding section (section 112), which vests in said Board the general oversight and care of all inland waters and of all streams and ponds used by any city, town or public institution or by any water or ice company in this Commonwealth as sources of water supply, is primarily to prevent pollution and to secure the sanitary protection of waters which are used as sources of water supply, it has, by reason of the amendment contained in St. 1907, c. 467, not only the right to delegate power to grant or withhold permits to boat, fish or cut ice upon sources of water supply, but also the duty, upon complaint, to investigate the granting or withholding of such permits, which partakes of the nature of an appellate jurisdiction; and, in the case of a great pond, a petition like the present would probably require some action upon the part of the Board in the nature of a review of the proceedings of the State or local authorities to whom had been delegated the granting and withholding of any permits required by the rules and regulations of the Board, and a consideration of their action with respect to the withholding or granting of any particular permit or permits concerning which complaint was made by the petitioner. In the present case, however, upon the assumption already made, the town of Winchester, in its corporate capacity, owns the shores, the bed and the waters of all three reservoirs; and, while the State Board of Health may restrict their use because they are sources of water supply, it can have no right, without the consent of the town, or of the authorized agents of the town, in the premises, who may be assumed to be the Water and Sewer Board of Winchester, to require any use thereof which is not necessary for the purpose of protecting them as such sources of water supply. In the case of a great pond a rule which permits fishing or boating either continues an existing public right or revives one which for a time has been prohibited, but here the Board is not dealing with a great pond, but with an artificial reservoir in which the public have no rights, and which, apart from such regulations as may be necessary to protect its purity as a source of water supply, is subject to such use for fishing or boating as the town of Winchester, or its agents, may see fit to make of it, subject to the general laws which govern the preservation and the taking of fish. I am, therefore, of opinion that the State Board of Health has no authority to require the water and sewer board of Winchester to issue permits for fishing, and that the regulation of boating or fishing, or of any use of the reservoirs in question which is not directly required to preserve the purity thereof, is for the town of Winchester to establish or determine. To the CIVIL SERVICE CITY OF BOSTON VETERINARY INSPECTOR, The positions of "veterinary inspector," "veterinary medical inspector" and In behalf of the Civil Service Commission you request my opinion as to whether the positions in the health department of the city of Boston, termed, respectively, "veterinary inspector," "veterinary medical inspector" and "veterinarian," are classified under the civil service law and rules. You state that the duties of the persons holding such positions are as follows: The duties of the person acting as "veterinary inspector" are the general inspection of dressed meat and of animals intended for slaughter at the abattoir. The duties of the "veterinary medical inspector" and of the two "veterinarians," whom the board of health is about to appoint, are stated by the board of health as follows: the duties are to examine for diseases in animals and to report to the board of health for its action; to investigate the sources of outbreaks of diseases and their communication from animal to animal, and from animal to man; and to examine and report upon diseases of animals in life and pathological conditions at the autopsy and on the meat market; and the board of health states that the successful performance of the work requires the special qualification of professional training. The facts stated do not bring the positions within any of the general statutory exceptions from the application of the civil service law (R. L., c. 19, § 9), nor am I aware of any statute which specifically excepts these positions therefrom. The question is, therefore, whether they are classified under the civil service rules. Civil service rule 7, which provides for the classification of the official service, includes as class 11, Inspectors other than inspectors of work, and persons doing similar work, excepting railroad inspectors, in the service of the commonwealth or of any city thereof. In my opinion the positions in question are classified within this rule. The word "inspector" has a broad meaning. It is defined in the Century Dictionary as follows: One who inspects or oversees; one whose duty it is to secure by supervision the proper performance of work of any kind, or to ascertain by examination the quality or condition of the work, or of any article offered for sale or transfer; a public officer charged with such duties; as, the inspectors of election or of police; an inspector of weights and measures. The form of the rule itself indicates that the word "inspector" is not limited in its meaning to an inspector of work. Inspectors of work are classified with foremen of laborers, in class 22. Class 11 includes all other inspectors. Without attempting to define precisely the meaning of the word "in |