In the broadest sense of the term the word "nuisances" is synonymous with "annoyance."39 In the law this word is used to designate such use of property or cause of conduct as, irrespective of actual trespass against others or of malicious or actual criminal intent, transgresses the restrictions upon use or conduct necessary in civilized communities.40

Nuisances are divided into public and private. A public nuisance is one which affects and injures the community at large. A private nuisance is one which specially injures some particular individual or individuals, beyond the injury which is suffered by all members of the community. A nuisance may be both a public nuisance and a private nuisance.41 Only a private nuisance can constitute the basis for an action of tort.

36 13 Edw., I. c, 22.

37 Shiels vs. Stark, 14 Ga., 429;

Jenkins vs. Woods, 145 Mass., 494; Shepard vs. Pettit, 30 Minn., 119.

38 Dodge vs. Davis, 85 Iowa, 77;

Thompason vs. Bostick, Mc-Null Eq. (S. C), 75. 39 "Anything that works to the hurt, inconvenience or damage." 3 Blackstone, Comm., approved in Baldwin vs. Ensign, 49 Conn., 117; Tombs vs. Hampton, 129 111., 382; Lawton vs. Steele, 119 N. Y., 235, and other cases. 40 See American and English Ency. of Law, Vol. XXI, p. 682.

Private nuisances involve injury to the lands of the plaintiff of his enjoyment of the posession of such lands. Blackstone defines a private nuisance to be "anything done to the hurt or annoyance of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments of another."42 The injury, in the case of a private nuisance, is caused by an act done off of the land of the party injured.43

The variety of forms which private nuisances may take are almost infinite, with the result of rendering any exact system of classification an impossibility. Nuisances, however, may roughly be divided into three classes, (1) those affecting land or buildings; (2) those affecting water rights, and (3) those affecting the enjoyment of the property. These three clauses will be taken up in order in the three following sections: