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203
It may be freely admitted that the cowsheds in the Metropolis
have been much improved since the first Dairies Order was
issued in 1879. The improvement is mainly due to the fact
that the regulations, which the Metropolitan Board was
authorised to make, established, for the first time, something
like a standard in regard to structural and other requirements,
power to make regulations being then for the first time conferred.
This good result is attributable, in part at least, to the
work of the Medical Officers and the inspecting staff of the
several Sanitary Authorities, taking advantage of the existence
of the regulations, although having no statutory power under
them or under the Order. The position of affairs will be
recognized as all the more extraordinary, in presence of the
fact that by the fresh regulations made by the Metropolitan
Board, under the Order of 1885, dairymen and cow-keepers are
required to notify (to the Board) the occurrence of cases of
infectious disease on registered premises. That some use
might be made of the information thus obtained, the Board
has consented, on the advice of the Society of Medical Officers
of Health, to give notice to the Medical Officers of the several
districts, of the occurrence of such illnesses, which the registered
persons are bound under penalty to report ; and Regulation 29
actually forbids resumption of business " in such (registered)
building until the same has been disinfected and declared by
the Medical Officer of Health for the district to be free from
infection." The Board in return has requested that similar
information, coming to the knowledge of the Medical Officer,
may be communicated to it, and also that the Medical Officer
and the Sanitary Inspectors should be authorized to make
known to the Board any premises used for storage and sale of
milk which have not been registered. Acting on my suggestion,
moreover, the Board has supplied a local list of registered
premises to the Sanitary Authority in each district; and this
may incidentally prove useful, although, as I have already
said, the Sanitary Authority have no statutory power, no right
of entry upon the premises.
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