Administration report / Public Health Department, Colombo Municipality.
- Colombo (Sri Lanka). Public Health Department
- Date:
- [1920]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Administration report / Public Health Department, Colombo Municipality. Source: Wellcome Collection.
43/78 page 14
![23. Vagrancy in Colombo.—The following summary shows the state of the town as regards vagrancy during the last four years. It will be seen that there was a great increase during 1919 and 1920:— ^ 1917. 1918, 1919. 1920. Number of vagrants admmitted to House of detention ... ... 266 ... 259 ... 799 ... 794 Number deported to India ... ... 74 ... 64 ... 225 ... 308 ~4. Dairies and Milk Supply.— There were 43 registered dairies on record at the end of the year, 14 having been discontinued and 13 new ones licensed. The milk supply during the year was very unsatisfactory, especially in the matter of adulteration, as the following shows :— Milk Adulteration, 1907—1920, Year. Samples analysed. Samples adulterated. Percentage of samples found to be adulterated. 1907 • • • 89 65 73 1908 — — no record. 1909 • « * 592 317 53 1910 1026 243 24 1911 1100 182 16 1912 1200 150 12 1913 • • • 571 57 10 1914 • • • 405 49 12 1915 • • • 518 80 15 1916 • • • 473 64 13 1917 • • • 457 75 16 1918 » • • 428 68 16 1919 • • • 338 80 23 1920 • • • 563 209 37 The ordinary milkman has no sanitary conscience and will ab.stain from adulteration only in proportion to the closeness of the supervision exercised over him, and the effectiveness or other¬ wise of the penalties imposed upon him when he is detected and convicted in the Municipal Court. In the absence of a special food inspection staff the Sanitary Inspectors have to do all the milk sampling in addition to their other multifarious duties, so that when their attention is dis¬ tracted, as it has been since 1913 by Plague, riots, rice troubles, influenza, smallpox, and Census work, the supervision exercised by them over the dairymen necessarily suffers, with the result shown in the statement above. The exceptionally bad results in 1919 and 1920 are believed to be in a large measure due to the inadequacy of the penalties imposed during those two years in the Municipal Court, experience in the past having clearly proved that the most effective way of check¬ ing this dangerous practice of adulteration is the imposition of heavy penalties upon every case detected. By far the worst offenders in the matter of adulteration are the unlicensed vendors, of whom there are a considerable number, especially in the Cinnamon gardens where they graze and keep their cattle on such places as the race course, the golf links and in private compounds. The householders themselves are entirely responsible for the persistence of this illicit and dangerous trade, inasmuch as they patronise these unregistered dealers. If they refused to deal with them that form of trade would automatically cease, and the whole of the trade would neces¬ sarily gravitate into the hands of the licensed dealers ; but they continue to employ them in spite of the warnings issued by the Public Health Department. The remedy is in their own hands and is a simple one. All they have to do is to insist upon their milkman producing his registration card, which by law every licensed vendor is bound to carry on his person when engaged in his trade. It would materially assist the Public Health De])artment in its attempts to cope with this nuisance, if householders would at once inform the Medical Ofheer of Healtli of any attempt by an unlicensed vendor to supply milk to them. Bad as was the state of the milk supply during the year it would undoubtedly have been worse but for the emulation created by the efforts of the Colombo Ladies League whose work, carried out at times under very trying circumstances, is gratefully acknowledged. 25. Bakeries.—Three bakeries were discontinued, while 9 new ones were registered, leaving a total of 43 on the register at the end of the year. The state of the Bakeries was fairly satisfactory, but much difficulty is experienced in keeping them up to the mark especially in the matter of the personal cleanliness of the workmen, and maintaining the buildings in a state of repair. Here again we have lieen materially assisted by the Colombo ijadies League. 26. Eatiug*-llOUSeS.—There were 438 of these establishments on the register at the end of the year. They require a great deal of supervision to keep them up to the mark. 27. JErated water factories.—There were 13 aerated water factories on the register at the end*of the year. All the aerated water factories adopt some method of filtration with a view of eliminating suspended matter, practically all of which although of a harmless character, nevertheless detracts from the appearance of the waters. Upon examining the water in a number of these factories before and after filtration, the Municipal Bacteriologist reported that all of them, except in the case of one factory, showed that the so called filtration instead of purifying the water was adding pollution. The filters were accordingly cleansed and sterilized with satisfactory results. The use of these private filters is, for trade purposes, at present apparently a necessary evil, which however as the Municipal Bacteriologist reports, will it is hoped be rendered unnecessary before long by improving the filtration at Labugama.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31753516_0043.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
