§ MR. WEIR (Ross and Cromarty)To ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he is aware that the epidemic of sore throat which recently broke out at the Belvedere Hospital, Glasgow, is, like that at Woking last autumn and at Finchley early this year, attributable to the milk taken from cows out of health; and, seeing that Dr. Chalmers, the medical 808 officer of health for Glasgow, states that the outbreak in that city is due to teat eruption in the stock at the farm from which the milk supply was obtained, will he consider the expediency of introducing at an early date such legislation as may be necessary to insure the occasional examination by a veterinary surgeon of all cows kept for the purposes of a public dairy.
(Answered by Mr. A. Graham Murray.) I am informed by the Local Government Board for Scotland that they have Dr. Chalmers' report under consideration. As regards prospective legislation, I can add nothing to the answer given to the Question addressed by the hon. Member on 13th June to the President of the Local Government Board,† but I may point out that under the existing law a local authority in Scotland is entitled to procure a report by a veterinary surgeon on the animals in any dairy from which the medical officer has evidence that infectious disease is likely to be spread.