MUNICIPAL HYGIENE 685 



hygiene of the cow-shed, for both of which duties they are 

 unfitted by training or experience. 



We wish to be quite clear on this matter ; the cleanliness 

 of milk-stores, milk-shops, milk-vessels, and the precautions 

 to be taken against the contamination of milk for sale, are 

 obviously the duties of the Medical Officer of Health, and 

 we have no desire to usurp his functions. His duties lie in 

 the dairy, ours in the cow-house ; we meet on common 

 ground for the protection of the public health. It is to the 

 veterinary profession that the inspection of dairy stock 

 should be consigned, and for it to prescribe and regulate 

 questions of lighting, ventilation, cleansing, drainage, and 

 water-supply of cow-sheds, and beyond that we have no 

 wish to go. 



Greater enlightenment than that exhibited by the Local 

 Government Board has, however, been shown by various 

 urban authorities, who, recognising the absurdity of employ- 

 ing an unskilled man to do the work of one whose special 

 training it is, have appointed veterinary surgeons as dairy 

 inspectors, and thereby not confined their usefulness to the 

 detection of tuberculous udders, but have extended it to 

 the entire hygienic surroundings of the cow. Eural 

 authorities, on the other hand, whether from poverty, 

 vested interests, or indifference, have not yet awakened to 

 the importance of this change. There may be ulterior 

 motives behind it ; the bulk of our milk-supply is rural 

 rather than urban, towns and cities are dependent on the 

 country, and the milk interests of the latter might be some- 

 what severely shaken by having to get rid of their tubercu- 

 lous stock, and cleanliness insisted upon. As a profession 

 we are indebted to the municipalities of Birmingham, Man- 

 chester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other cities, for 

 enlightened veterinary arrangements and control. 



But this control only exists within their own boundaries, 

 a dairyman outside the municipal boundary, excepting in 

 certain cities which possess special powers, is not under 

 control, he can sell tuberculous milk, and continue the old 

 filthy system of milk-supply unchecked and uncontrolled. 



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