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157
COWSHEDS, DAIRIES, &c.
In 1875 I called attention to the cowsheds and dairies in
the Metropolis, in a paper read before the Society of Medical
Officers of Health; urged the necessity, in the interests of public
health, of regulating them by bye-laws, and submitted a draft
code. I contended that an Act should be passed, providing for
the regulation of cowsheds and dairies; that the Metropolitan
Board of Works should be the local authority, to exercise a
general supervision, and to make regulations, uniform for the
Metropolis; but that the duty of inspection, etc., should devolve
on the Vestries and District Boards of Works, The code, with
slight alterations, was adopted and published by the Society as
"model bye-laws." In 1878 the Metropolitan Board was constituted
local authority by Section 34 of the Contagious
Diseases (Animals) Act, a position now occupied by the
London County Council. The Privy Council framed the
Dairies, Cowsheds and Milk Shops Order in 1879; and
Regulations, based upon the Society's code, were made by the
Board, under the operation of which as much improvement as
could be expected has been effected, seeing that the Board's
powers were limited. The Order proved very useful; and
soon after its promulgation, I obtained a conviction against a
dairyman for carrying on his business while his house was
practically a small-pox hospital. One of the regulations provides
for a certain amount of cubic or "air space " for each
animal. Long before it existed, I had successfully contended
for 800 feet. The Justices adopted my view, with the result
that, in the parishes and districts comprised in the Kensington
Division, that amount became a standard allowance which has
been enforced, although the regulations require only 600 feet,
under certain circumstances. In 1885 a new Dairies Order
was issued, which enabled the local authority to frame more
stringent regulations, especially for the prevention of contamination
of milk, and spread of infectious disease through
the agency of milk, a subject to which I have already referred,