Nuisance

A nuisance is anything that unlawfully worketh hurt, inconvenience, or damage.

3 Bl. Comm. 216.

Any offensive erection, which, from its nature, may be an annoyance, and from its situation actually becomes so, is a nuisance.

Tayl. Landl. & Ten. § 201.

Public Nuisance

Such an inconvenience or troublesome offense as annoys the whole community in general, and not merely some particular person.

4 Bl. Comm. 166.

Such an annoyance as infringes on rights common to the public.

7 Mich. 432.

Some considerable portion of the community must be affected, for while that is a public nuisance which injures generally such citizens as may be so circumstanced as to come within its influence (43 N. J. Eq. 478; 8 Cow. [N. Y.] 146), it must be in a public place, where members of the community are liable to come within its influence (7 Blackf. [Ind.] 534; 34 Tex. 230; 36 N. J. Law, 283). The test is not the number of persons annoyed, but the possibility of invasion of the public rights.

5 Rand. (Va.) 691.

Private Nuisance

Anything done or maintained whereby special annoyance or injury is done to another. A public nuisance may be private, as well, and such have been termed "mixed nuisances."

Wood, Nuisance, §■ 17.

The exact amount of annoyance or inconvenience necessary to constitute a private nuisance has never been settled. In general terms, the injury should cause an inconvenience "materially interfering with the ordinary comfort, physically, of human existence; not merely according to elegant or dainty modes and habits of living, but according to plain, sober, and simple notions."

4 Eng. Law & Eq. 15.

The filling of the air with smoke or noxious vapor, to the detriment of health (11 Mo. 517; 12 L. T. [N. S.] 776), or with clangor in a quiet neighborhood (14 Mo. App. 590), the maintenance of excessive heat, rendering adjoining premises uninhabitable (46 Ala. 381), the keeping of explosives or inflammable substances (35 N. J. Law, 17), are well-recognized forms of private nuisance.