§ MR. WILLIAM FIELD (Dublin, St. Patrick's)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he can state upon what authority the Medical Officers of Health in various towns throughout the country frequently exercise the power of seizing and destroying the bodies of animals that had been previously passed by a Government Inspector as sound in open market, without any compensation to the recent purchaser?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. H. CHAPLIN, Lincolnshire, Sleaford) (who replied)The hon. Gentleman is in error in supposing that animals are passed as sound in open market by any Government Inspector, and the condition precedent to which he refers does not therefore exist. The power of a Medical Officer of Health to seize meat, &c., which appears to him to be unfit for the food of man, is contained in Section 116 of the Public Health Act, 1875, and meat, &c., so seized may be destroyed by order of a Justice.