XXI PROCEDURES TO OBTAIN PURE MILK 413 



not put their own house in order ; it is, therefore, not 

 unreasonable that the milk-drinking areas should be given 

 power to deal with the matter themselves. 



Principles of local government are not fixed and unalter- 

 able, but are being yearly extended in all directions, and this 

 principle is one which has received considerable sanction in 

 numerous local enactments, besides being widely practised in 

 America without detriment. 



2. It will be said that the burdens thrown upon the 

 urban communities will be heavy and out of proportion to 

 the benefits received. When an urban community wants a 

 clean water supply it has to pay for it ; if it wants clean milk 

 it also must be paid for. Also there is no reason why the 

 expenses should be prohibitive. Systematic bacteriological 

 examination of the milk would be necessary, and would greatly 

 reduce working expenses. The chemical purity of the milk 

 supply is maintained by taking a large number actually, but 

 still, compared with the total bulk of milk, a small number 

 proportionally, of samples of milk. The bacterial purity of 

 milk can be maintained by an extension of the same principle 

 of spot samples. 



The heavily manured and badly handled milk samples 

 would be ascertained in the first place by bacteriological 

 examination. The responsible persons would then be warned. 

 If the milk still continued impure the source of supply and 

 the methods of transmission would then be personally inquired 

 into by the city milk inspector, who should be a veterinary 

 surgeon if possible. 



The conditions and methods which required altering 

 would be pointed out, and if they were not altered, or milk 

 continued to be bacterially bad, the responsible persons would 

 be cited to appear before the urban authority to show cause 

 why their supply should not be stopped from being admitted 

 into the urban area. In default of improvement the milk 

 supply would be excluded, under a heavy penalty, from being 

 sent into that district. 



The urban medical officer of health would no doubt 

 send a list, a " black list," of the suspended purveyors or cow- 

 keepers to other local authorities for their information, and 

 would report the non-compliance of the milk producer to the 



