To the Trustees of Massa chusetts State Sanatorium. 1907 April 11. MASSACHUSETTS STATE SANATORIUM - APPLICATION- PREF- Under the provision of St. 1907, c. 222, § 1, that "preference shall be given to I have your letter of the 4th, in which you say that the trustees of the Massachusetts State Sanatorium desire to ask my opinion on the effect of chapter 222 of the Statutes of 1907, section 1 of which is as follows: In the admission of persons to the Massachusetts state sanatorium preference shall be given to those applicants who are citizens of the Commonwealth. You say that the State Sanatorium was established by St. 1895, c. 503, under the name of Massachusetts Hospital for Consumptives and Tubercular Patients; that the name was changed to Massachusetts State Sanatorium by St. 1900, c. 192; that there is no provision of law which defines the objects of the institution or the admission of patients; that cases of tuberculosis are divided by the medical profession into three classes, according to the progress the disease has made, (1) incipient, (2) advanced and (3) far advanced; and that the trustees have for the past ten years admitted only persons who after medical examination were pronounced to be in the incipient stages of tuberculosis, believing that in so doing they were best carrying out the object of the institution, but that whenever there were not sufficient incipient cases to fill the institution, moderately advanced cases were accepted, and that incurable cases are not accepted. You say there are not sufficient applications from incipient cases to fill the sanatorium, and moderately advanced cases are frequently admitted, but only when their admission does not result in preventing the admission of incipient cases. You ask whether chapter 222 of the Acts of 1907 compels you to admit persons in the moderately advanced or incurable stages of tuberculosis who are citizens of Massachusetts, in preference to applicants in the incipient stages of tuberculosis who are residents but not citizens. I think the law as it stands to-day authorizes you to admit (1) incipient cases where the persons are citizens, (2) advanced cases where the persons are citizens, and preference must be given to these two. I see no objection to your making a rule that you will not admit far advanced cases. If you should do that, you can then, after having provided for the incipient and advanced cases where the applicants are citizens, admit, first, incipient cases where the applicants are not citizens, and then advanced cases where the applicants are not citizens. In other words, my conclusion is that you would be warranted in giving preference (1) to incipient cases of citizens, (2) to advanced cases of citizens, (3) incipient cases where the applicants are not citizens, and (4) advanced cases where the applicants are not citizens. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF BRISTOL COUNTY COMPENSATION FOR SERVICES AS MEMBERS OF JOINT BOARD. The Governor and Council may not provide compensation for the county commissioners of the county of Bristol for services as members of the joint board created by St. 1903, c. 462, to locate and construct a new drawbridge over Great Taunton River, and consisting of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, and the county commissioners of the county of Bristol. Governor. 1907 April 16. My opinion is asked orally by Your Excellency as to whether To the or not the Governor and Council may provide compensation for the county commissioners of the county of Bristol for their services as members of the joint board created by chapter 462 of the Acts of 1903, to locate and construct a new drawbridge over Great Taunton River, between the city of Fall River and the town of Somerset. Section 1 of this chapter provides that: The board of railroad commissioners, the board of harbor and land commissioners and the county commissioners of the county of Bristol, who are constituted a joint board to act by a majority vote of all the members, are hereby authorized and directed to locate and construct a new drawbridge between the city of Fall River and the town of Somerset, over Taunton Great river Section 5 provides for the appointment of a special commission to estimate and determine the towns, cities and corporations to be assessed for the cost of constructing and maintaining the bridge. Section 6 provides that: The members of the board of railroad commissioners, the board of harbor and land commissioners and the special commission appointed under this act shall receive such compensation as the governor and council shall approve, the same to be paid by the county of Bristol. . . . I am of opinion that the Governor and Council have no authority under the act in question to approve or vote any compensation to the county commissioners of Bristol County. The words "special commission" do not in my opinion indicate the whole of the joint commission, but refer to the special commissioners to be appointed under section 5. To the Board of Registration in Pharmacy. 1907 April 18. REGISTERED PHARMACIST-CONDUCT OF BUSINESS — ATTEND- R. L., c. 76, § 23, requires that an unregistered member of a copartnership engaged By your communication of March 28 you seek my opinion upon the question whether, under R. L., c. 76, § 23, it is necessary "for a registered pharmacist to be in attendance at all times in a drug store while conducting the business of a pharmacist." The section referred to is as follows: The provisions of sections twenty-one to twenty-nine, inclusive, of chapter one hundred, section twenty-six of chapter seventy-five and section two of chapter two hundred and thirteen shall not apply to physicians who put up their own prescriptions or dispense medicines to their patients; nor to the sale of drugs, medicines, chemicals or poisons at wholesale only; nor to the manufacture or sale of patent and proprietary medicines; nor to the sale of non-poisonous domestic remedies usually sold by grocers and others; nor shall any unregistered member of a copartnership be liable to the penalties hereof if he retails, compounds for sale or dispenses for medicinal purposes drugs, medicines, chemicals or poisons only under the personal supervision of a registered pharmacist. The widow, executor or administrator of a registered pharmacist who has died or the wife of one who has become incapacitated may continue his business under a registered pharmacist. In reply I beg to advise you that the statute clearly requires that an unregistered member of a copartnership who compounds for sale or dispenses for medicinal purposes drugs, medicines, chemicals or poisons shall do so only under the personal supervision of a registered pharmacist, and such supervision can exist only when a registered pharmacist is present. LABOR-EIGHT-HOUR LAW-DOMESTIC SERVANTS-HOLIDAYS. Under St. 1907, c. 269, amending St. 1906, c. 517, and providing that no laborer, workman or mechanic employed by or on behalf of the Commonwealth or of any county therein or in any city or town which has accepted the provisions of R. L., c. 106, § 20, "shall be requested or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day or more than forty-eight hours in any one week, except in cases of extraordinary emergency," cooks, maids, or other domestic servants may not be requested or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day or more than forty-eight hours in any one week, except in cases of extraordinary emergency. No workman, laborer or mechanic so employed may be requested to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day, except in cases where a Saturday half-holiday is given, in which case the hours of labor on other working days may be increased to make a total of forty-eight hours for the week's work. Employees may arrange between themselves to substitute for each other in providing for vacation periods; but they may not be requested or required so to do by their employers if it results that such arrangement involves more than eight hours' work by any of the parties in any one day. Where an employee at a State insane hospital, as a precautionary measure, is required to remain and to sleep in a room adjoining the room of a patient or a dormitory, the time of sleep is not to be considered as time on duty. intendent of the Worcester I have your letter of the 25th, in which you ask my opinion To the Superupon certain questions relative to the so-called eight-hour law, being chapter 269 of the Acts of 1907, section 1 of which reads as follows: State Hospital. 1907 April 26. Section one of chapter five hundred and seventeen of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six is hereby amended by inserting after the word "laws," in the sixth line, the following: - No laborer, workman or mechanic so employed shall be requested or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day or more than forty-eight hours in any one week except in cases of extraordinary emergency. Only a case of danger to property, to life, to public safety, or to public health shall be considered a case of extraordinary emergency within the meaning of this section. Engineers shall be considered mechanics within the meaning of this act, and by adding at the end of the section the following:Threat of loss of employment or threat to obstruct or prevent the obtaining of employment, or threat to refrain from employing in the future shall be considered requiring within the meaning of this section, so that the section as amended will read as follows: Section 1. Eight hours shall constitute a day's work for all laborers, workmen and mechanics now or hereafter employed by or on behalf of the Commonwealth, or of any county therein, or of any city or town which has accepted the provisions of section twenty of chapter one hundred and six of the Revised Laws. No laborer, workman or mechanic so employed shall be requested or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day or more than forty-eight hours in any one week except in cases of extraordinary emergency. Only danger to property, to life, to public safety or to public health shall be considered cases of extraordinary emergency within the meaning of this section. Engineers shall be considered mechanics within the meaning of this act. But in cases where a Saturday half-holiday is given the hours of labor upon the other working days of the week may be increased sufficiently to make a total of forty-eight hours for the week's work. Threat of loss of employment or threat to obstruct or prevent the obtaining of employment, or threat to refrain from employing in the future shall be considered requiring within the meaning of this section. You ask: "Is it permissible to employ domestics on the hourly basis?" By domestics I assume that you mean house servants, both men and women; and I am of opinion that neither men nor women can be requested or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day, nor more than forty-eight hours in any one week, except in cases of extraordinary emergency. 2. "May employees work overtime on other days, to make up for a holiday on any other day than Saturday?" |