FOUL FISH AND FILTH FEVERS. 321 



sessional court, which, unless it is shown that such person or trader has used the 

 best practical means to abate the nuisance, etc., prevent or counteract the effluvia, the 

 person or his representative so offending is liable to a line not exceeding £50. 



Consult sections 35, 47, etc., of this 1891 act, and also the public-health acts 

 amendments act, 1890, sections 25-31 inclusive. Of course these acts apply to fish 

 shops or stores, public fish market, etc. 



The public health (London) act 1891, by sections 134 and 135, state that where com- 

 plaint is made to the local government board, that " the commissioners of sewers 

 have made default in executing and enforcing any provisions of this said act," that 

 then the local government board has the legal power to compel the said commis- 

 sioners of sewers — i. e., the corporation of the city of London — to carry out the 

 sanitary and other provisions of the public health (London) act, 1891. 



If we can not expect, then at least let us hope, that public opinion as well as the 

 financial interests of the tisherfolk, fish-venders, and the local municipal authorities 

 responsible for the cleanliness of our public food-markets will themselves speedily put 

 and keep their own trading-places in good order and healthy conditions. If not, there 

 is ample legal power under the various acts which 1 have already quoted, especially 

 under provisions contained in the 1890 and the 1891 public-health acts, to enforce the 

 necessary remedies. By future legislation these remedies should be made strictly 

 compulsory upon the local sanitary authorities and no longer left to the optional action 

 of more or less private individuals. 



LOCAL MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH TO BE APPOINTED FOR LIFE. 



The weak and breaking point of the sanitary administration of the United King- 

 dom is the unfair, uufortunate, and uncertain position of the local medical officer of 

 health, who is too often practically dependent and depending upon the mere majority of 

 the unpaid members of the local municipal body. 



The municipal body, though personally " well meaning," may be more or less 

 ignorant, incompetent, prejudiced, or impractical faddists — or worse still, one or more 

 of its members may be directly or indirectly interested in defiance of public law and 

 public good, in upholding the very abuses and nuisances which the medical officer of 

 health desires to extinguish. If, however, the whim of a bare majority of a munici- 

 pal body can deprive its medical officer of his position and livelihood or make his 

 official existence a continued misery and martyrdom, how can such a specialist and 

 scientist carry out the official and moral duties of his station as public local trustee of 

 the health of his community? 



After election and appointment by the local municipal body, the medical officer 

 of health should only be removable after being legally proved unfit at a bona-flde public 

 inquiry, say, presided over by the local government board or other competent tribunal. 

 Like judges, magistrates, coroners, etc., the tenure of office by the local medical officer 

 of health should be for life, or else up to <i certain age, with a pension to retire upon. 



The public health (London) act, 1891, by its sections 82, 83, 110, and 113, demands 

 that the local sanitary authority shall provide all such acts, matters, and things as 

 may be necessary for mitigating any disease, these powers extending to trading vessels 

 lying in their local ports, rivers, waters, etc. The removal or prohibition of avoidable 

 filth is, of course, included. 



F. C. B. 1893—21 



