SUPERVISION OF ICE-CREAM MANUFACTURE 43 
(c) Omits on the outbreak of any infectious or contagious disease amongst the persons 
employed in his business to give notice thereof to the Medical Officer of Health for 
the City : 
shall be liable for every such offence on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding forty 
shillings.' 
The clause, though good as far as it goes, does not, it will be seen, give the Local 
Authority power to license the vendor as in the case of the Dairies and Cowsheds Order, nor to 
register the premises as in the case of the Liverpool Improvement Act, 1867, nor does it provide 
powers of entry for the purposes of inspection, &c. 
At the same time, although there is no compulsion to be registered, the power possessed by 
the Health Authorities is really very little affected by this omission. 
If the premises had to be registered, the Health Department would not do this unless the 
arrangements were satisfactory. At present, if the people apply, and are told tlieir premises are 
unsuitable, or even if they make no application, if the Healtli Authorities consider that they are 
unsuitable, without further trouble an information can be laid, and proceedings taken under Section 
32 of the Act. We usually warn the people once or twice to desist from carrying on the manu- 
facture, and then, if they persist, we lay an information in the ordinary course. Soon, however, 
when the provisions of the Act become generally known, this ' warning ' will not be necessarily a 
preliminary to legal action. 
The Liverpool Corporation Act, 1898, of which we are speaking, received the Royal assent 
on August 1 2th, 1898. 
Since that date to August I2th, 1899, 319 persons have applied directly or indirectly to the 
Health Department for permission to sell ice-cream ; 56 persons have been told that, owing to 
unsuitability of premises, &c., they should make other arrangements. 1,600 visits have been 
paid by the two Inspectors who look after this work. Three informations have been laid, two 
cases heard before the stipendiary magistrate, and two convictions obtained with fines of 20s. and 
40s. respectively, and costs in each case. One case was withdrawn. 
The stipendiary has in each case pointed out the serious character of the oflPences, remarking 
once that the best punishment for the defendant would be to make him live on his own ice-cream 
for a time. 
We have not thought it requisite to make any special regulations for the ice-cream trade. 
We regard it as a form of milk-selling, and carry out the new regulations applicable to that 
business made by the Corporation of Liverpool in 1897. 
The procedure of the Health Department is briefly this : — The address of the premises 
being secured — whether by the occupant applying to the Health Office, or from information 
obtained in other ways — a visit is paid by one of the Inspectors, and a report is made of present 
conditions, and the possibility or otlierwise of adapting the premises for the purpose intended, also 
of the repairs, cleaning, &c., required. 
If necessary Dr. Hope or I then visit the premises, and the occupier is afterwards formally 
told whether they are or are not suitable. 
