London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Kensington 1886

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]

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141
businesses," scheduled under the Slaughter Houses (Metropolis)
Act, 1874, are carried on. The premises registered under the
Dairies, &c., Order of 1885 alone, are, as already stated, some
mine thousand in number. The District of the Inspector for
Kensington embraces Paddington, St. George's, Hanover Square;
St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster; Hammersmith, Fulham,
and Chelsea. The Vestries and District Boards, by their fifty-four
Medical Officers of Health, and some liundred-and-fifty Sanitary
Inspectors, have no statutory right of entry upon any of the
premises. What power the Sanitary Authorities possess in
respect of cowsheds depends wholly upon their ability to oppose
the renewal of a license if the business is not conducted to theii'
satisfaction. Dairies, milk stores, and milkshops are no more
under the control of the Sanitary Authorities than other occupied
premises. They have no right of entry unless in the case of
nuisance or suspected nuisance. Under the arrangement proposed
by your Vestry, for giving to the Sanitary Authorities co-ordinate
power of inspection, with authority to enforce the regulations, the
sanitary staff in every district in the Metropolis would have been
made legally available in the supervision of all registered premises.
Referring to the new Order, the "Chief Officer of the Special
and Sanitary Branch, Metropolitan Board of Works," in a paper
read by him before the Society of Medical Officers of Health,*
prior to the introduction of the Bill (now an Act), described the
" provisions " of the Order as " very valuable," and such as " would
go far towards giving milk that protection " which is necessary, " if
the Executive Authority had been placed in the right hands in all
cases." But, " until the Sanitary Authority is made the authority
under the Act, in the manner proposed by the Public Health
(Dairies) Bill, introduced by the Government into Parliament, in
the session of 1883 " (and as provided for in the new Act), he did
" not look forward to valuable results under the powers given,
except in towns," where, as before intimated, the Sanitary
Authority is the Local Authority, excepting in the Metropolis itself.
*"On the Protection of Milk from Contamination, etc." The Paper is the
joint production of Mr. A. Wynter Blyth, Medical Officer of Health for Marylebone,
and Mr. Alfred Spencer, the Chief Officer referred to.