752 
duty it shall be, under the direction of the said Commissioners, to execute and 
enforce all laws and regulations relating to the public health and vital sta- 
tistics, and to perform all such duties as may be assigned to him by said Com- 
missioners; and the board of health now existing shall, from the date of the 
appointment of said health officer, be abolished.® 
Although the act itself set forth that the health officer should be 
appointed in lieu of the board of health, as a matter of fact his duties 
were substantially the same as those of the health officer, who had 
previously operated under the direction of the board of health; the 
Commissioners of the District were in fact, if not in law, the suc- 
cessors to the board of health. Xeither the Commissioners nor the 
health officer, however, were authorized to promulgate regulations 
relating to public health, but were authorized merely to operate under 
such laws and regulations relating to such matters as were then in 
force or might thereafter be enacted by Congress. And Congress, 
having assumed by the act of June 11, 1878, exclusive legislative 
control of the food supply of the District, made its first move toward 
that end on January 25, 1879, by passing an act entitled “An act for 
the protection of dairymen, and to prevent deception in sales of butter 
and cheese in the District of Columbia.^ The act, as its title imports, 
was solely for the protection of dairymen against unfair competition 
resulting from the fraudulent sale of oleomargarine in the District 
of Columbia and for the protection of the community from such sales. 
It had no relation whatsoever to matters of health, and frankly per- 
mitted the sale of oleomargarine when properl}^ marked. 
The validity of the ordinances of the defunct board of health ap- 
pears to have been soon questioned, and on April 21, 1880, Con- 
gress, by a joint resolution entitled, “ Joint resolution legalizing the 
health ordinances and regulations for the District of Columbia,” 
legalized certain of the ordinances enacted by the board of health, 
among them an ordinance to prevent the sale of unwholesome food in 
the cities of Washington and Georgetown.® These ordinances and 
the ordinances relating to the location and keeping of cow yards, pens, 
and stables, previous!}^ enacted by the boards of aldermen and com- 
mon councils of the corporations of Washington and Georgetown, rep- 
resented at this time the entire body of law in force in the District of 
Columbia relating to the production and sale of milk. Crude as it 
appears, it was probabh^ in keeping with the then prevailing ideas 
concerning the regulation of the production and sale of this food, 
although it was very far behind the needs of the situation, as viewed 
by the board of health itself and as set forth in its several annual 
reports. 
® 20 Stat. L., 107. 
» 20 Stat. L., 264. 
® 21 Stat. L., 304. 
