1882 Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings Vo 1 016

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HOUSE . . . . No. 313.

[House, No. 274, as ordered to a third reading.]

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Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-five.
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AN ACT

Authorizing the formation of Corporations for the
Purpose of Cremating the Bodies of the Dead.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in
General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as
follows:

1 SECTION 1. Any five or more persons may
2 associate themselves together in the manner pre-
2 scribed by chapter one hundred and six of the
4 Public Statutes, with a capital of not less than
5 six thousand nor more than fifty thousand dol-
6 lars, for the purpose of providing the necessary
7 appliances and facilities for the proper disposal
8 by incineration of the bodies of the dead; and
9 corporations so established shall have the same
10 powers and privileges, and be subject to the same
11 duties, liabilities and restrictions as other corpo-
12 rations established under said chapter, except as
13 hereinafter provided. The par value of shares in
14 the capital stock of corporations organized under
15 the provisions of this act shall be not less than
16 ten nor more than one hundred dollars.

1 SECT. 2. Every such corporation may acquire
2 by gift, devise or purchase, and hold in fee sim-
3 ple, so much real estate, not exceeding in value
4 fifty thousand dollars, as may be necessary for
5 carrying out the objects connected with and ap-
6 propriate to the purpose of said corporation, and
7 situated in such place as the state board of
8 health, lunacy and charity may determine to be

9 suitable for said objects and purposes. No build-
10 ing shall be erected, occupied or used by such
11 corporation until the location and plans thereof,
12 with all details of construction, have been sub-
13 mitted to, and approved by, said board or some-
14 person designated by it to examine them.

1 SECT. 3. Every such corporation may make
2 by-laws and regulations consistent with law, and
3 subject to the approval of said state board, for
4 the reception and cremation of bodies deceased
5 persons, and for the disposition of the ashes
6 remaining therefrom, and shall carry on all its
7 business in accordance with such regulations as
8 said board shall from time to time establish and
9 furnish in writing to the clerk of the corporation,
10 and for each violation of said regulations it shall
11 forfeit not less than twenty nor more that five
12 hundred dollars.

1 SECT. 4. No body of a deceased person shall
2 be cremated within forty-eight hours of decease,
3 unless death was occasioned by contagious or
4 infectious disease; and no body shall be received
5 or cremated by said corporation until its officers
6 have received the certificate or burial permit
7 required by law before burial, together with a cer-
8 tificate from the medical examiner of the district
9 within which the death occurred, that he has
10 viewed the body and made personal inquiry into
11 the cause and manner of death, and is of opinion
12 that no further examination nor judicial inquiry
13 concerning the same is necessary. For such
14 view, inquiry and certificate he shall receive the
15 fees prescribed by section nine of chapter twenty-
16 six of the Public Statutes, for a view without an
17 autopsy by examiners in counties other than
18 Suffolk County. Medical examiners within their
19 respective districts shall make such view and in-
20 qairy upon application therefor and payment or
21 tender of said fees.

1 SECT. 5. This act shall take effect upon its
2 passage.