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vision of Dairies, Cowsheds, &c., is eminently a sanitary matter
proper to be placed in the hands of the Sanitary Authorities and
under the control of the Local Government Board by its Medical
Department as Central Sanitary Authority.
Much credit is due, for improvements effected upon registered
premises, to the Metropolitan Board of Works, as Local
Authority, and to their " Chief Officer," who has brought
exceptional ability and energy to bear upon the discharge of his
duty under the Order—one only of multifarious duties devolving
upon him—and who has always maintained amicable relations
with Medical Officers of Health, and always receives their
suggestions with courtesy and consideration. My objection is to the
negation of principle, so far as the metropolis is concerned, involved
in the new legislation, which is in no slight degree the outcome of
representations made to the Govermental Authorities by the
Medical Officers of Health, and especially by the Society of
Medical Officers of Health, who were the first to frame " model "
codes of regulations for dairies, cowsheds, &c., and for slaughterhouses
also ; the drafting of which, I may mention, devolved upon
myself in connection with papers which I read before the Society,
before the passing of the Slaughter-houses Act in 1874, and
before the passing of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act in
1878, which was followed by the issue of the Dairies, &c., Order
in 1879.
BAKEHOUSES.
In a previous report I had occasion to deprecate the transfer
of the duty of supervising bakehouses from the Sanitary Authority
to the Factory Inspector, under the provisions of " The Factory
and Workshop Act, 1878, " by which " The Bakehouses Regulation
Act, 1863," was repealed. The effect of the transfer was
to put an end to systematic inspection of bakehouses in the
Metropolis as a whole; for the Factory Inspectors were too few in
number to take up the duty which the Sanitary Authorities, as
a rule, ceased to perform; the result being that many of the