XVII 



LEGAL POWERS IN ENGLAND 311 



faecal matter, thorns, and hair, and a quantity of organisms. 

 The milk was exceedingly filthy and totally unfit for human con- 

 sumption. The defendant had said he would have strained the 

 milk before selling it, but the bacteriologist said that straining 

 would not remove the bacteria. The effect on infants and 

 invalids of using such milk would be to cause diarrhoea. 



The nuisance sections (Sections 91 to 94) of the Public 

 Health Act, 1875, are sometimes of value in dealing with 

 cowsheds. Cowsheds and dairies can sometimes be dealt with 

 as " premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious 

 to health," while two of the other sub-clauses, " any animal 

 so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health," " any 

 accumulation or deposit which is a nuisance or injurious to 

 health," may occasionally be successfully invoked. The use of 

 this Act has the important advantage that, by its use (Section 

 94), the landlord may be made responsible for the main 

 structural alterations. 



The Infectious Diseases Prevention Act, 1890, Section 4, 

 gives additional powers in relation to milk. It must be re- 

 membered that this Act is an adoptive Act. Section 4 reads 

 as follows : 



In case the medical officer of health is in possession of 

 evidence that any person in the district is suffering from infectious 

 disease, attributable to milk supplied within the district from any 

 dairy situate within or without the district, or that the consumption 

 of milk from such dairy is likely to cause infectious disease to any 

 person residing in the district, such medical officer shall, if author- 

 ised in that behalf by an order of a justice having jurisdiction in 

 the place where such dairy is situate, have power to inspect such 

 dairy, and if accompanied by a veterinary inspector or some other 

 properly qualified veterinary surgeon to inspect the animals therein, 

 and if on such inspection the medical officer of health shall be of 

 opinion that infectious disease is caused from consumption of the 

 milk supplied therefrom, he shall report thereon to the local 

 authority, and his report shall be accompanied by any report 

 furnished to him by the said veterinary inspector or veterinary 

 surgeon, and the local authority may thereupon give notice to the 

 dairyman to appear before them within such time, not less than 

 twenty-four hours, as may be specified in the notice, to show cause 

 why an order should not be made requiring him not to supply any 

 milk therefrom within the district until such order has been with- 

 drawn by the local authority, and if, in the opinion of the local 



