Daily Kennebec journal., 1916-08-18

1.-The Portland Board of Health, emulat-
ing example set by the board Of health
by the larger city Of Boston, and very
ambitious to show how up-to-date and
advanced in sanitary science it is, has. in
the past few years, cut many spectacular
figures In the attempted inspection Of
farm homes. 1t first, a few years ago,
passed an order that the milk Of no COW
be sent to Portland. This had the ap-
pearance Of collusion between the vet
erinaries of Portland, who wanted the
dollar they got for testing the COW, and
the Portland Board Of Health. Milk pro-
ducers who supplied Portland at once or
ganized and employed veterinaries from
Lewiston. The wonderful stir that they
had created collapsed and today no one
hears anything from the Portland Board
Of Health about milk from tuberculin
tested cows.
To-day its great fad is that an inspec-
tor must be put out to inspect barns. If
this august body had taken pains to listen
to DR.. North, the eminent authority who
looks after the sanitary milk in New
York city, deliver his address at the State
udiiy SoulSICIiSCs Ill IcScIHUeE, dt LeWlS-
ton, they would have learned that the
surroundings Of the barn have little to dc
with sanitary or unsantary milk. They
did not hear DR.. North's lecture. Evi-
IDENTIFY they preferred to remain in the
limelight Of forever talking about sani-
tary milk and never obtaining it.
"Unquestionably they can sample every
can Of milk that comes across the city
line of Portland, or sample every can OF
milk that is offered for sale in Portland
and, If it is not wholesome. can condemn
it and they should do it. At this particu-
lar place their authority ceases. If the
time has come when the Portland Board
of Health can send inspectors into a
home to inspect its condition, except for
disease, the farmers of Maine want to
know 1t. The old English law was that
a mans home was his fortress. If that
law has been repealed or modified, the
farmers Of the State Of Maine want to
know when it was done; or, if it has not
been done and Is about to be done now,
they would like to know the definite time
when that change is likely to occur"
after any product leaves the farm it
can be inspected and, If not fit for food
can and should be condemned. The con-
ditions under which that food is produced
is of no concern whatever to a board OF
health. If milk is inspected and sampled
when it arrives in the city it cannot be-
come menace to public health, under
any condition. So far as milk being a
menace to public health, We have more
light on that subject than we formerly
had. Mr.. Williams, the sanitary engineer
for the Massachusetts Board of Health
testified before the Interstate Commerce
Commission in Boston, during the month
of March, in the rate case hearing, that
not one per cent. of the literature writ
ten on disease transmission by milk was
worth the paper it was written on. Mr.
Williams is an eminent authority and this
was his voluntary assertion under oath
"The old idea Of board of health's du-
ties and the reason it was given the au-
tocratic powers which it possesses was
that, in case of public epidemics or of con-
tagious diseases, some source of au-
thority should exist. entirely above and
beyond the ordinary authority given to
municipal officers, to protect communi-
ties from these diseases. 1t was hardly
expected that these boards of health
would arrogate to themselves the re-
sponsibility of pure food inspection, which
is entirely an administrative function Of
the government. 1t seems, however, that
the pure food inspection appeals to their
taste and fancy more than location of
disease
"It has been source Of wonderment
not only to myself but to many others,
that employees around the eating places
in our cities, suffering from syphilis, have
gotten by these argus-eyed protectors OF
public health. Yet the pure food inspec-
tors from the Department of Agriculture
have several times located and had re-
moved such afflicted persons, while the
Board of Health has paid not one par
ticle Of attention to what Is presumably
their duty; and 1t Is left for men not
medically trained to call the attention or
proprietors to these conditions rather
than for a board Of health which is
trained, and whose duty 1t would seem to
be. So far as I. myself. am concerned.
would prefer to eat slice of rotten
watermelon or a piece of bad meat. or
drink a glass Of the dirtiest milk, rather
than he served once by waiter, or to
have the dishes from which I eat washed
by a person suffering from the loathsome
disease"