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112
Dairies and Milkshops.—The number of persons registered
during the year as purveyors of milk was 36, of which 11 were
new registrations. During the same period 25 names were removed
from the register for various reasons, chiefly on transfer
of business. The total number left on the register was 253.
Of these, 183 are milkshops, as distinguished from dairies,
and sell milk in driblets, for a farthing or a halfpenny at a time,
in this way disposing of three or four quarts per day.
These milkshops, which are also small general or grocery
shops, were inspected on 205 occasions, and 43 notices served
for various sanitary defects.
In registering and regulating these small shops, it is the practice
to enforce the appropriate provisions of the Dairies, Cowsheds
and Milkshops Orders, the various Public Health Acts, and the
General Powers Acts of the London County Council.
It is a condition precedent to registration that no offensive
material (such as, for example, paraffin oil) shall be sold from
the same counter or from the same room as that from which the
milk is sold, or sold from any place in or near that in which the
milk is stored.
The sale of paraffin oil or other material from the premises is
not objected to provided the oil is stored and sold outside the
shop.
The floor of the chandlers' shop must be free from accumulations
of litter, or of stored shop material, which would render it
difficult or impossible to ensure the efficient cleansing and proper
sweeping of the shop day by day.
The shop milk must be kept in an approved vessel with an
imperforate metal cover. It must be confessed, however, that in
actual practice it is very difficult to secure satisfactory conditions
of milk sale in these small general shops.
Their occupants are too often dirty—personally and domestically.
They are very undesirable persons to be entrusted with the
handling and sale of milk. They do not realise that the care
and cleanliness of milk is a problem in practical bacteriology.
The shelves in the shop are dusty and overcrowded with