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intake of foods containing calcium and phosphorus in considerable
amount. Cod Liver Oil has been found to have a controlling influence
on this adjustment by virtue of containing an as yet unidentified substance
(Vitamin A). Experiments seem to show that sunlight, both natural and
artificial, also exercises control on these phenomena.
The place of importance which cow's milk occupies as the substitute
for the natural food of infants and also the preponderating part which
it takes in the dietary of children and invalids, has justified the attention
which has been paid to it in so many quarters. It is recognised that,
although an invaluable food, it possesses vast potentialities for transmitting
disease. The need for a clean milk supply has called forth
propaganda from voluntary societies, which have been founded with
the object of instructing the public in everything concerned with the
production of milk and its value as a food when pure. Reforms in
methods of production and supply have been urged by official, professional,
and technical bodies for many years and they have been constant
in asking for legislative measures to fulfil their demands. The
various statutes and regulations dealing with the supply and sale of milk,
are given more or less in chronological order as headings, under which an
account of the administrative activities is mentioned.
Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Orders, 1885 to 1899.
Registration of Dairymen, etc.—At the end of the year the register
contained the names of 492 persons who were engaged in the selling
of milk, either in or from shops, and including those itinerant vendors
who have neither shops nor stores, but sell milk from street barrows.
Ten new applications to be registered during the year were received.
Of those, six concerned the transfer of business to another proprietor,
while the premises continued to be used for the same purpose. Two
applications were refused, on the grounds that the premises were unsuitable
for the sale of milk. These were small general shops without proper
facilities for the storage of milk and for the cleansing of milk vessels.
The sanitary inspectors paid 537 visits to premises in which milk is
sold, but no defects were found which required the service of a notice.
In one instance an assistant to a milk roundsman was stopped from
continuing his occupation because of having been in contact with a case
of infectious disease. He was permitted to resume when all danger of
infection had been removed.
Six names were removed from the register as the persons concerned
had given up business as milksellers.