And in 1863 it declared[100] that the law made in 1855 as to the inspection and seizure of unwholesome food—meat, poultry, flesh, fish, vegetables, fruit, &c., &c.—was defective, and that other and more effectual provisions should be substituted therefor; and others were accordingly substituted.
By an Act in 1864 the main principles contained in previous Factory Acts were carried a stage further, in some instances even to trades carried on in private houses.
“Every factory to which this Act applies shall be kept in a cleanly state and be ventilated in such a manner, &c., as to render harmless dust, &c.”
Unfortunately the main breakdown in the metropolis in regard to nearly all the ameliorative sanitary legislation of Parliament was directly caused by the very local authorities who had been specially created for the purpose of administering those laws. Primarily they were responsible for the failure of very much of that legislation, and they never seem to have at all realised, or been impressed by, the gravity of their trust, or by the great responsibility to their fellow-citizens which their position entailed.
Even in comparatively small matters their ingenuity in counteracting the intentions of the Legislature was remarkable, as can be seen from the following passage in a report of one of the Medical Officers of Health:—
“I refer specially to the Sanitary Acts, to the Adulteration of Food Act, and to the Metropolitan Gas Act, in each of which cases the powers entrusted to them have not been carried out.
“They appointed an examiner under the Adulteration of Foods Act (1860), and also under the Metropolitan Gas Act (1860), but the person appointed had no tools given him with which to perform the work entrusted to him.
“Both the Acts are dead letters in the parish. As to the Metropolitan Gas Act, it conferred a large benefit, both as to purity and cost, on the metropolis, but the Vestries failed to carry out a single effective or important provision of that Act.”
In 1860, also, an Act had been passed empowering the local authorities in the metropolis to provide vehicles for carrying persons suffering from infectious diseases to hospital, and so obviating the danger to the public of such persons being conveyed in cabs or other public vehicles. That Act was also inoperative.