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2.—That the Dairies, Milkshops, and Cowsheds Order is defective, and that
any amendment should extend the definition of disease as applied to animals,
and should make the provision of regulations by local authorities compulsory.
That the scope of the Regulations should be extended to cover dirty milk, and
should enable Local Authorities to prohibit the sale of any milk which fails to
comply with the conditions of purity agreed upon.
3.—That all preparations offered or sold as food for infants should be
certified by a Government Analyst as non-injurious, and that each packet
should contain its analysis.
E.—Schools.
That the Education Department be urged to add instruction in Elementary
Hygiene with reference to the dietary and rearing of infants to their present
scheme for systematically training girls in the senior classes in the practice
and principles of personal hygiene and elements of dietary.
F.—Midwives.
That, in the opinion of this Conference, the Midwives Act, 1902, should
be extended to Scotland and Ireland.
In a paper contributed by me to the Conference, I ventured to suggest that
infants of suckling age should not be admitted to municipal creches and
public nurseries, at a distance, as this is a direct encouragement of premature
weaning, but that manufacturers who elect to employ the labour of mothers
with suckling infants on account of its cheapness should provide, on the
premises, cradle-rooms for the infants, and give facilities to the mothers to
suckle their infants in the middle of each of the forenoon and afternoon
shifts.
I also ventured to suggest, that under Sections 79 and 83 of the Factory
and Workshops Act, 1901, the Home Secretary appeared to have the power to
make regulations prohibiting the employment of, or modifying or limiting the
period of employment of, any class of person in any manufacture or process
certified to be dangerous to health in the case of women, and that if the interpretation
of the Act did not give him this power, he should be given the power
to make regulations for mothers during the pregnant (after quickening) period
and during the suckling period, as to the kind and amount of work that they
should be limited to in certain industries and processes, and that this would be
preferable to the indiscriminate and total prohibition of women to work during
long periods.
I have reported upon the notification of births within 48 hours, and also
upon the desirability of the bacteriological examination of milk, especially of
milk intended for hand-fed infants, both of which courses were unanimously
recommended at the Conference held in the Council Chamber of this Town
Hall, in June, 1905.
On the 26th April, 1906, the Public Health Committee reported, that
" instead of establishing milk depots, it is more desirable to arrange for the
" bacteriological examination of farmers' milk consigned to the Borough,
" especially of milk intended for infants, with a view to controlling the