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189
COWSHEDS, DAIRIES, ETC.
In 1875 I called attention to the state of the cowsheds
and dairies in the Metropolis, in a paper read before the
Society of Medical Officers of Health, and urged the necessity,
in the interests of public health, of regulating the buildings,
and the conduct of the business, by bye-laws. I proposed
that the late Metropolitan Board of Works should be the
Local Authority, to exercise a general supervision, and to
make bye-laws, uniform for the Metropolis, but that the duty
of inspection should devolve on the Sanitary Authorities.
In 1878 the Board was constituted the Local Authority for
these among other purposes, by section 34 of the Contagions
Diseases (Animals) Act, and in 1879 the Privy Council issued
the first Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milk Shops Order. The
Order proved useful, as a means of preventing the spread of
infectious disease through the agency of milk; and shortly
after its promulgation, I obtained a conviction under it
against a dairyman, for carrying on his business whilst his
house was, to all intents and purposes, a small-pox hospital.
Regulations were made by the Board, under which as much
improvement as possible was effected in the condition of the
cowsheds and dairies, having regard to the restricted
character of the Board's powers, to which in 1889 the Count}'
Council succeeded. One of the regulations of the Board
provided for a certain amount of cubic or air-space per cow.
The Society of Medical Officers of Health adopted 800 feet
as a proper amount in 1876, that being the amount which I
had recommended in a code of bye-laws* appended to the
paper on London Cowsheds, which I had read before the
Society in December, 1875.
* This code, adopted and published by the Society as " model bye-laws " (vide
Annual Report for 1875-6, page 41) formed the basis of the "provisions" which
the Metropolitan Board of Works, as Local Authority, " considered necessary to
be made in all cowsheds for ventilation, including air-space
in compliance with sections 5 and 6 of the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops
Order of July, 1879."