View report page

44
"(2.) The Sanitary Authority, if in their opinion he fails to show
"such cause, may make the said Order, and shall forthwith serve Notice
"of the facts on the County Council of the county in which the dairy is
"situate, and on the Local Government Board, and, if the dairy is situate
" within the district of another Sanitary Authority, on such Authority.
"(3.) The said Order shall be forthwith withdrawn on the Sanitary
"Authority, or their Medical Officer of Health on their behalf, being
"satisfied that the milk supply has been changed, or that the cause of
"the infection has been removed."
It is true that in the Metropolis if any such action were taken by one
Borough Council it would always be in conjunction with any other Borough
Council to which the same supply was being distributed.
This has been the case hitherto, and incidentally the fact proves that the
powers now being sought in Parliament by the London County Council
to deal with the County as a whole are entirely unnecessary and useless. For
whether one is dealing with a single Borough or a group, the morality of
stopping the supply within one's own limits and allowing it to be used
elsewhere is scarcely of a standard to be approved by Sanitarians.
If a milk is unfit for consumption in one district, it is equally so in any
other, and anything short of total prohibition is indefensible and absurd.
Milk stopped in one district will be sent to another. A good instance of
this is given by Medical Officer of Health, Manchester, Report for 1902.
The Local Authority in whose district the dairy farm is situated should deal
with the matter.
The Contagious Diseases Act, 1878, gave power to the Privy Council, now
transferred to the Local Government Board, to make an Order, under which
Local Authorities were empowered (inter alia) to make regulations :—
(а) For the inspection of cattle in dairies.
(b) For prescribing and regulating the lighting, ventilation, cleansing,
drainage and water supply of dairies and cowsheds in the occupation of
persons following the trade of cowkeepers or dairymen.
(c) For securing the cleanliness of milk stores, milk shops and of
milk vessels used for containing milk for sale by such persons.
(d) For prescribing precautions to be taken by purveyors of milk and
persons selling milk by retail against infection or contamination.
These regulations, however, are adoptive only, and I would therefore
submit that in the first place these should be made compulsory on every
Authority.