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has to fulfil. An example came to my notice during the year of
a milkman who has a pasteurising plant which he uses, not
invariably, I believe, but frequently. He sells the liquid from
this plant as milk: on two or three occasions analysis showed
that the milk had been insufficiently or improperly pasteurised
and that it contained an excessive amount of microbes. The
milkman's explanation was that he was selling "milk" and not
"pasteurised milk," and that no standard had been laid down
for the number of microbes that milk may contain.
A milkman, therefore may be licensed to sell pasteurised
milk; he may have a suitable pasteurising plant; he may put
the milk through the plant, lay it down in cold storage and
retail it at his convenience under the engaging title of new or
fresh milk. I do not suggest that such is the practice of all milk
vendors, but the provisions of the Milk (Special Designations)
Order, 1923, make such practices possible. It seems reasonable
for the public to demand that if milk is pasteurised it
should be sold as such.
A most objectionable practice, to which my attention has
been frequently drawn, is that of the milkman who fills up from
a churn on his barrow dirty and unclean bottles taken from
door-steps and forthwith re-distributes these to consumers. If
Members of the Town Council or of the public see this filthy
process in operation they will do a real service to the Public
Health if they will call the attention of the Medical Officer of
Health to this fact and will send a postcard giving the name of
the milk vendor and the address at which they witnessed this
affair.
PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
(See Tables G and M.)
Small-pox.—There have been no oases of small-pox in the
Borough during the year, although the disease occurred in neighbouring
areas.
The Borough of Hornsey contains no small-pox hospital, but
arrangements have been made for the treatment and isolation
of its small-pox patients at the small-pox hospital of the Uxbridge
Joint Hospital Board. The Borough of Hornsey now has the
right to use ten beds in this hospital.