HH62/2/PEEBLE/5

Transcription

[page] 4

closets, the drainage from which ultimately finds its
way into the River Tweed. There is no scavenging
system. The mill proprietors and farmers remove
the contents of ash-pits, etc., periodically.
The Farmers' houses and Farm Servants' quarters
throughout the County are as good as, if not superior
to, most of their class elsewhere. The position, how-
ever, of many of their wells renders the latter liable
to be polluted, and they are nearly all mainly fed by
surface water.
One of the first questions regarding sanitary ad-
ministration which I was asked to advise upon, when
appointed six months ago, related to the then existing
staff of Sanitary Officials. What I recommended was
adopted, and the services of all the Local Medical
Officers of Health and of all the Local Sanitary
Inspectors were dispensed with.
I have made special inquiries during my six months
in office into the water supply and requirements of
Dairies. This I did in conjunction with the Sanitary
Inspector, who is likewise Inspector of Dairies, and
who reported thereon to the District Committee.
I was asked by the Committee to draw up Draft
Bye-Laws for the regulation of Dairy premises. This
I did, and submitted them to the Committee. I made
them stringent, and hope, if they are adopted by the
Committee, that they will meet the approval of the

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Board. In recommending the adoption of Bye-Laws
of a stringent nature, I pointedly put before the Com-
mittee my reasons by letter, which I here quote -
'To any one who considers some of these regulations too
stringent, I would respectfully point out this fact - that it is
only by means of Bye-Laws that we can hope to put an end
to the selling of milk from filthy premises unsuited for the
purpose, and it lies with the District Committee to put
them or not put them in force in any special instance, there
can be no reasonable objection to their being stringent. It
is on this account that they are framed in such a manner as
likely to prove useful.
'There is no more perfect medium for spreading disease
than infected milk, and too much attention cannot be given
to the cleanliness of premises and to the conditions favour-
able to the healthiness of the cows. From recently acquired
statistical information, it is clear that Tuberculosis in cattle
(which can be conveyed to man through the milk of affected
animals) is, just as in the human subject, fostered by impure
air and want of sufficient cubic space.'
It is for these reasons, then, that I trust the Bye-
Laws, as drafted by me, may be adopted as they stand,
or, if altered, may not be in such manner changed as
to detract from their stringency.
Some dwellings have occupied my special attention.
Amongst these was a house at Dolphinton, in a cellar
of which a boy had been long confined. The room
he occupied was dark, and in the filthiest condition
imaginable. The two women in charge of these pre-
mises were brought up by the Society for the Pre-
vention of Cruelty to Children for cruelty, and were