753 
All questions relating to the production and sale of milk seem to 
have been in abeyance, and the dairy farmer and the milk dealer, the 
sanitary authorities, and the consumer of milk rested content with 
existing conditions until the fiscal year 1882-83. TYe find then, 
in the report of the health officer, Dr. Smith Townshend, for 1883, the 
following suggestion, contained- in a report by Dr. B. G. Pool, medi- 
cal sanitary inspector. The statement refers to certain investigations 
that Doctor Pool had made to ascertain the causes of cases of diph- 
theria, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever : 
On inquiry as to the source of milk supply, it was found that many persons 
were unable to give the name or residence of their milkman, seeming to con- 
sider themselves fortunate if they were able to secure the service of a “ country- 
man.” It is suggested as desirable that some provision should be made for the 
regular inspection of the sources of milk supply, not only as to the quality of 
the milk itself, but that inquiries be made to ascertain the prevalence of con- 
tagious diseases among the families of the milkmen.® 
Although no record appears of any effort having been made to pro- 
cure the enactment of the legislation necessary for the establishment 
and maintenance of a system of milk inspection embodying the super- 
vision and control of places of production and sale, yet the health 
officer undertook in the following year to inspect the dairy farms from 
which the milk supply of the community was drawn. In his report 
for 1883-84, after recounting certain facts tending to show the im- 
portance of the proper supervision of the milk supply, he says: 
With such facts as these before us it becomes apparent that in making an ex- 
amination to ascertain as to the comparative purity or impurity of the milk 
supply of a city the health officer must go farther than the making of an analy- 
sis of samples of the various milks sold. His influence must be felt by the pro- 
ducer as well as by the middleman who comes between the producer and the 
consumer. 
The entire subject is discussed in a thoroughly scientific spirit, but 
the report does not set forth with any satisfactory detail the results 
of the investigation which was made, nor does it appear that any ac- 
tion was taken even at this time looking toward the establishment of a 
proper milk-inspection service. * 6 The health officer, like his forerun- 
ner, the board of health, was moving in advance of the times. 
Current reports in the spring of 1888 seem to have alleged the 
prevalence of adulteration of food and drink in the District, for 
on April 10, 1888, the health officer calls attention of the Commis- 
sioners to the fact that the health department is without an analyst, 
and in his annual report for that year he states that the inspector 
of asphalts and cements of the engineer department, who has been 
analyzing for the health department certain samples submitted to 
® Report of the Health Officer, 1882-83, p. 39. 
6 Report of the Health Officer, 1883-84, pp. 15 et seq. 
1414— Bulk 56-09- 48 
