748 
have upon the milk issuing therefrom.® Apparently, however, it 
was construed to prevent the selling of milk under certain conditions 
since we find enacted by the sixty-third council, on May 24, 1866, an 
act entitled, “An act explanatory of the act entitled, c An act in rela- 
tion to cows,’ approved August 1, 1863,” which provided simply that 
the first section of the earlier act should be so construed as to permit 
the selling of milk by persons who keep one or two cows. 6 The situa- 
tion in Georgetown, then a separate corporation, must have been 
similar to that existing in Washington, for on April 22, 1865, the 
board of aldermen and board of common council of the corporation 
of Georgetown enacted an ordinance substantially the same as that 
previously enacted by the corporation of Washington, but further 
provided that no person should be permitted to feed or milk a cow on 
any of the public streets or footways of the city.® 
The next record of action looking toward the regulation of the 
food supply of the District of Columbia appears in the act of Con- 
gress, entitled “An act to provide a government for the District of 
Columbia,” approved February 21, 1871, which, as an incident to the 
general reconstruction of the local government, created a board of 
health and in terms made it the duty of that board to prevent the 
sale of unwholesome food in the cities of Washington and George- 
town. d This board seems to have proceeded with admirable prompt- 
a An act in relation to cows. 
Be it enacted hy the hoard of aldermen and hoard of common council of the 
city of Washington, That from and after the first day of October, eighteen 
hundred and sixty- three, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to 
keep, provide for, or maintain within the limits of the city of Washington, a 
cow yard, pen, or stable for dairy or other purposes, nearer than two hundred 
feet of any dwelling house, other than the dwelling house of the owner or 
keeper of such yard, pen, or stable, under a penalty of not less than one nor 
more than five dollars for each day’s offense so continued; to be prosecuted 
and recovered as other fines and penalties due the corporation are prosecuted 
and recovered: Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall apply 
to persons who keep hut two cows for their own immediate use. 
Sec. 2. And he it further enacted, That the owner or keeper of any cow yard, 
pen, or stable, or other place where cows are kept, within the limits of the city 
of Washington, shall daily remove the filth from and keep clean such yard, pen, 
stable, or other place, under a penalty of not less than one or more than five 
dollars for each and every offense ; to be recovered as provided for in the first 
section of this bill. 
The commissioners of the several wards and police officers of the city are 
instructed to report and prosecute any and every infringement of this act. 
Approved August 1, 1863. — (Laws of the corporation of the city of Wash- 
ington passed by the sixty-first council, chap. 4.) 
6 Laws of the corporation of the city of Washington, passed by the sixty- 
third council, chap. 27. 
c Ordinances and resolutions of the corporation of Georgetown, 1865, page 24. 
* 16 Stat. L., 424. 
