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After some delay these certificates were forthcoming, and proved conclusively
that both the farm and the cows were in a perfectly satisfactory condition.
It is possible that the filth found in the milk may have entered the churn
during its journey from the farmer to the consumer, and this, I am sorry to
say, is by no means an uncommon occurrence. If wholesale dealers would
only realise the importance of safeguarding the purity of this article of diet,
and the ease with which this can be accomplished by the adoption of sealed
churns, then our hopes for a speedy reduction of the present rate of infantile
mortality would be materialised.
The summons was dismissed on technical grounds, the Magistrate holding
that the milk was not in the possession of the man on whose doorway the
churn was deposited.
PUBLIC HEALTH (TUBERCULOSIS) REGULATIONS, 1908.
By an Order dated the 18th December, the Local Government Board, in
pursuance of Section 130 of the Public Health Act, 1875, as amended and
extended by the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and the Public Health
Act, 1896, have provided for the notification to the medical officer of sanitary
authorities of pulmonary tuberculosis (phthisis or consumption) occurring
amongst the inmates of Poor Law Institutions, or amongst persons under the
care of district (Poor Law) medical officers.
Hitherto in the City the notification of these cases by district medical officers
has been voluntary, but the sanitary authorities were not armed with any
powers for preventing the spread of this disease, which is, as pointed out in
the Order, not only endemic, but also of an infectious character.
The issue of this Order is unquestionably a step in the right direction, as it
cannot fail to bring home to the public, and the poorer classes particularly,
the knowledge that consumption is infectious, and that it can therefore be
fought and suppressed.
The following is an abstract of the main provisions of the Order which came
into operation on the 1st January of this year.
By Article IV the medical officer of a Poor Law Institution must, within
24 hours of recognising symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis in the case of a
poor person who is an inmate of the Institution, notify the case to the medical
officer of health of the sanitary district in which the person resided
immediately before he enters the Institution.
Article V directs similar notification is to be made in cases when a district
medical officer recognises the disease in persons attended by him (i.e., outrelief
patients), according to his agreement with the Guardians.