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of dust, on a stone or earthen floor. The usual explanation
offered is that this course promotes cooling, and so retards
fermentation; but it is not realized that milk so kept becomes
laden with the germs of putrefaction, which rapidly become active
when the milk is taken into the warm and stuffy kitchens of the
poor. The importance of the bacteriological purity of milk
can hardly be overestimated, and it is to the absence of precautions
to avoid germ-contamination of milk brought from a
distance that much infantile mortality and sickness is to be
ascribed. Under the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops order,
no "cowshed or dairy" may be occupied unless certain sanitary
requirements are first complied with. It is regrettable that no
similar enactment obtains in the case of "milk shops." For it
is no infrequent occurrence to find a milkseller occupying premises
with nowhere to keep his milk but in the scullery or a fowl house,
and nowhere to wash his cans but in the family washtub.
Under these circumstances the cost of any alteration or improvement
found necessary falls on the tenant, whose resources are
perhaps insufficient to supply what should have been provided
before he commenced his tenancy. No offensive trades are
carried on in Barnes and Mortlake.
Such places as under the old Factories Acts required the
occasional visitation of the Inspector of Nuisances have been
usually found in a proper sanitary condition.
Under the new Factories Act—which operates from
January 1, 1902—a large number of workshops and workplaces
are to be registered by the Sanitary Authority, and it will be the
duty of the Medical Officer of Health to report annually to the
Home Office on their condition. This will necessitate the inspection
and supervision by him of about one hundred additional
places of business or trade.