753 
All questions relating to the production and sale of milk seem to 
I 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. We find then, 
j in the report of the health officer. Dr. Smith Towmshend, 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- 
I man.” It is suggested as desirable that some provision should be made for the 
j 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 
ofiicer 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- 
I 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- 
I 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 
k the report does not set forth with any satisfactory detail the results 
I of the investigation which was made, nor does it appear that any ac- 
f tion was taken even at this time looking toward the establishment of a 
I proper milk-inspection service.^ The health officer, like his f orerun- 
^ ner, the board of health, was moving in advance of the times, 
t 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 tlie Commis- 
I ^ sioners to the fact that the health department is without an analyst, 
j i and in his annual report for that year he states that the inspector 
i 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. 
® Report of the Health Officer, 1883-84, pp. 15 et seq. 
45276'^— Bull. 56—12 48 
