366 MILK AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH chap. 



become public, and that to but a limited degree, when coercive 

 measures are demanded and sanctioned by law. If English 

 inspectors were to work on the basis of their findings being 

 public property it would cause much resentment and fric- 

 tion, as well as restriction of sources of information now 

 available. 



The principle of the publication of the individual scores 

 has much to commend it, and the result would doubtless be 

 very beneficial in effecting marked improvement in present 

 milk conditions, but it is extremely doubtful whether it will 

 be possible, or even politic, to introduce what amounts to a 

 drastic alteration in the basis upon which public health 

 administrative work is carried out in this country. The 

 publication of scores might also render the local authorities 

 liable to legal actions if they published particulars of score- 

 cards which were inaccurate. 



V. Special American, etc., Eegulations 



American city regulations for the control of milk are, in 

 general, much more drastic and stringent than those in force 

 in this country. The fundamental basis upon which they are 

 worked is the permit system, and while the actual regulations 

 vary considerably, underlying them all, as Eastwood ^ points 

 out — 



There is the general principle that the local authority has the 

 right and the duty of defining the conditions under which milk 

 may be sold without danger to the public health, and of prohibiting 

 the sale, within the area over which it holds authority, of milk not 

 satisfying these requirements. As these requirements include pro- 

 visions that the milk, from its source to its destination, shall not be 

 exposed to conditions liable to render it unwholesome as food, a 

 powerful control is indirectly exercised upon the producer living 

 outside the district, since he cannot obtain a market Mdthin the 

 district for milk not satisfying the local regulations as regards its 

 production and handling. 



The actual regulations made may not be, and frequently 

 are not, more stringent than those which may be obtained and 

 enforced in this country under the Dairies, Cow-sheds, and 

 Milk-shops Orders. The difference is the added power given 



1 Report to Local Government Board, 1909, p. 28. 



