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implicated milk could be excluded from his district. It seems obvious
that when disease has been traced to a particular milk supply the sale of
such milk should be altogether stopped, and not merely that it should be
•excluded from the district in which the outbreak occurred. The County
Council has no power to exclude from London even a particular milk
known to be the cause of disease. Moreover, when a sanitary authority
in London excludes from its district the milk from a particular farm,
notice is required to be given to the council of the county in which the
farm is situated, but we know of no power of the county council to stop
the sale of the milk.
In the recent outbreak the milk supplied in the districts affected was
procured through a middleman, who obtained the milk from a number of
farms in various parts of the country and distributed it to the local
vendors direct from the railway stations to which it was sent by the
farmers. It does not appear to be a general practice in the milk trade to
keep such a record as would enable the origin of the milk supplied to
particular local vendors to be readily traced. We think such a record
should be kept, and that a medical officer of health should be able to
procure information as to the sources of supply of milk distributed in his
district.
We may point out that authorities in Scotland have much wider powers
and duties in this connection than those of authorities in London. Thus,
under section 60 (2) of the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897, if the
medical officer of any district has evidence that any person in the
district is suffering from an infectious disease attributable to milk from
any dairy without the district, or that the milk from any such dairy is
likely to cause any such disease to any person residing in the district,
such medical officer shall forthwith intimate the same to the local authority
of the district in which such dairy is situate, and such other local
authority shall be bound, forthwith, by its medical officer, to examine
the dairy and the persons aforesaid, and by a veterinary surgeon to
examine the animals therein, previous notice of the time of such
examination having been given to the local authority of the firstmentioned
district, in order that its medical officer or veterinary surgeon
may, if they so desire, be present at the examinations referred to, and
the medical officer of the second-mentioned local authority shall forthwith
report the results of his examination, accompanied by the report of
the veterinary surgeon, if any, to that local authority.
Sub-section 3 of the same section requires the local authority of
the district in which the dairy is situate to meet forthwith and consider
the reports and any other evidence by parties concerned, and either to
make an order requiring the dairyman not to supply any milk from the
dairy until the order has been withdrawn by the local authority, or
to resolve that no such order is necessary.