4o6 MILK AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH chap. 



(a) The Act containing it has to be adopted, so that it is 

 not in force in many parts of the country. 



(&) Thesje is considerable initial delay in inspecting the 

 farm or farms supplying the suspected milk. The Medical 

 Officer of Health has first to collect his evidence, then apply 

 to a justice having jurisdiction in the place where the dairy 

 is situated. Dealing with a large town this may mean a 

 journey of anything from 50 to 200 miles. On arriving he 

 has to search out a justice who, not knowing anything about 

 him, may require him to submit his evidence before he will 

 grant the order. The justice has entire discretion to grant or 

 withhold the order to inspect. Knowing this, the Medical 

 Officer of Health has to see that his evidence is considerable, 

 or, in other words, he must delay to get sufficient evidence, a 

 reasonable suspicion may not be enough. 



(c) He has only power to inspect the animals and the 

 dairy, and the former only if accompanied by a veterinary 

 inspector. There is no authority given him to obtain infor- 

 mation from the cowkeeper, or to examine the persons on the 

 farm, although this is the most important thing for him to 

 do. He may presumably ask questions, but it is left to the 

 discretion of the cowkeeper to answer them. Apparently a 

 careful survey of the cows and a contemplation of the manure 

 heap and other features of the cowshed is, in some occult way, 

 to furnish him with the key to the outbreak. 



(d) Delay is caused while the Medical Officer of Health 

 is reporting to his authority. 



(e) Further delay follows, since, after receiving the report 

 of the Medical Officer of Health, the local authority have to 

 give the dairyman notice to appear before them, and they 

 must give him at least 24 hours' notice. 



(/) There is nothing in the section to say that the 

 infected milk shall not be supplied to some other district, and 

 presumably those districts would have to go through the same 

 time-destroying procedures. 



Stated in a few words, this section gives inadequate powers, 

 and its operation necessitates delay so long and so unnecessary 

 as to render it of very little practical value, since all the time 

 the peccant milk may be daily infecting large numbers of con- 

 sumers. It is sometimes used, but only in want of better powers. 



