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68
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1910.
Tuberculosis
of the udder
in London
cows.
London
County Council
(General
Powers) Act,
1904 (PartV.)
The Dairies, (owsheds and Milkshops Order, 1899, provides that the milk from cows certified
by a veterinary surgeon to be affected with tubercular disease of the udder shall not be
(a) mixed with other milk, or
(b) sold or used for human food, or
(c) sold or used for the food of swine without having first been boiled.
In 1904 this power was supplemented in London by additional powers, incorporated in the
London County Council (General Powers) Act of that year, to remove any cow from any dairy, farm
or cowshed in the County (elsewhere than in the City), if such cow is suspected to be suffering from
tuberculosis of the udder, and if, upon slaughter, these suspicions are verified, a sum equal to threequarters
of the agreed value of the animal (not exceeding £22 10s.) is payable by the Council. If,
however, the cow is proved to be free from tuberculosis of the udder, the full agreed value (not
exceeding £30), together with a further sum of £1, is payable by the Council.
The cows in the London cowsheds have, since the date of the Dairies Order of 1899, been periodically
inspected by the County Council's veterinary inspector, with a view-to the detection of cows
suffering firom tubercular disease of the udder.

The 28 cows suffering from tubercular disease of the udder were slaughtered, and the carcases
destroyed, compensation being paid by the Council to the owners in accordance with the provisions
of the London County Council (General Powers) Act of 1904.
Tuberculous
milk ; London
County
Council
(General
Powers) Act,
1907. Part
IV.
Part IV. of the London County Council (General Powers) Act of 1907 empowers the County
Medical Officer of Health or other duly authorised person to take, within and without the County,
samples of milk produced or sold or intended for sale within the County ; and, having obtained a
justice's order, in company with a veterinary surgeon, to enter any dairy from which milk is being
sold or suffered to be sold or used within the County, and to inspect the cows kept therein, and if the
Medical Officer or such authorised person has reason to suspect that any cow is suffering from tuberculosis
of the udder he may take samples of the milk of such cow. If it appears to the Council that
tuberculosis is caused, or is likely to be caused, to persons residing in the County from the consumption
of milk from any dairy, or from any cow kept therein, the Council may make an order prohibiting
the supply of such milk in the County until the order has been withdrawn, and any person contravening
the order is liable to a penalty not exceeding £5, and for a continuing offence to a daily
penalty not exceeding 40s. Appeal may be made against the Council s order.
On 11th February, 1908, the Council delegated to the Public Health Committee, the authority
conferred by Part IV. of this Act, dealing with tuberculous milk, and fixed the 1st July, 1908,
as the date upon which the Act should become operative. During the year under review the
method of procedure adopted was as follows : Samples were taken by the Council's inspectors from
churns of milk consigned from the country to the various London railway termini, and these were submitted
to the Lister Institute for bacteriological examination. In the case of those samples in respect
to which the examination proved that there was evidence of the presence of tubercle bacilli, a clinical
examination of the cows at the dairy farm from which the milk had been consigned was made by a
veterinary inspector, appointed for the purpose under the Act, and cows found to have tuberculous
udders were certified for the purposes of the Dairies and Cowsheds Orders and copies of the
certificates were forwarded to the local sanitary authorities concerned. During the year under review
2,769 samples of milk were taken. The milk had been sent to London from the following counties :
Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Dorsetshire, Essex,
Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire,
Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutlandshire, Shropshire,
Somersetshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, and Worcestershire ;