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71
Again, the procedure provided in section 71 of the Public Health
(London) Act, by which a meeting of the sanitary authority is needed
before the supply of milk within its district from a particular dairy can
be stopped, may lead to serious loss of time. The procedure adopted
in connection with the closure of a school under the Education Code,
by which any two members can act on the advice of the medical officer
of health, is much more convenient. It might be well to provide for
appeal. Loss of time in connection with the settlement of an appeal as
to money is of small moment compared with loss of time in stopping
the distribution of an infective milk supply.
Coming now to the question of milk from cows affected with tubercular
disease of the udder, we may remind the Council that on 29th March,
1900, we reported the results of the bacteriological examination of 97
samples of country milk imported into London for human consumption.
As many as seven of these samples contained tubercle bacilli. The Council,
on our recommendation, sent a copy of our report to the Local Government
Board and Board of Agriculture, and expressed the hope that some
steps would be taken to render the periodical inspection of the udders of
cows by veterinary surgeons obligatory throughout the country. No Bill
having been introduced for this purpose, we wish to draw the attention
of the Council to the powers recently obtained for dealing with tuberculous
milk by a number of municipalities, including Liverpool,
Manchester, Leeds, Halifax, Hastings, West Bromwich, Southport,
Scarborough, Blackpool, Derby, Stockport, Salford, Bootle, and Darwen.
These powers may be briefly stated as follows—
Samples of milk are examined, and, if found to contain tubercle bacilli,
the medical officer of health is authorised, after obtaining a
magistrate's order, to inspect the farm from which the milk comes, and,
if accompanied by a veterinary surgeon, to inspect the cattle. The local
authority is then empowered to exclude from its district the milk from
such farm if it finds it necessary to do so.
We think if this power were possessed by the London County Council,
the owners of cows and the authorities of districts outside London might
possibly be led to institute a periodical examination of cows, and thus,
by the early exclusion from the milk supply of the milk of a particular
cow suffering from tubercular disease of the udder, to obviate the risk ot
the whole milk supply of the farm being prohibited from coming into
London. Some of the special Acts referred to contain other provisions
which would be useful in this connection. Thus, the Dairies, Cowsheds
and Milkshops Order of 1899, which is in London enforced by the
County Council, makes it illegal to sell milk from a cow having a
tubercular udder only after that disease has been certified by a veterinary
surgeon. In Manchester, however, a dairyman is liable to a penalty if he
knowingly sells milk from a cow which is suffering from this disease, and