ordinance was adopted did not render it invalid. In City of Chicago v. Schmidinger, 243 Ill. 167, an ordinance was sustained which fixed the weight of loaves of bread which might be offered for sale, required a label at least an inch square or an inch in diameter to be affixed in a conspicuous place to each loaf sold or offered for sale, having printed thereon the weight of the loaf and the name and address of the maker, baker or manufacturer, and required every maker, baker, manufacturer or seller of bread to keep scales and weights suitable for weighing bread in a conspicuous place, and to weigh in the buyer's presence, when requested, the loaf or loaves of bread sold or offered for sale. In People v. Freeman, 242 Ill. 373, a statute was held valid which prohibited the coloring of imitation butter to make it resemble genuine butter, though the coloring matter used might be harmless and its use in genuine butter not prohibited. The ordinances and the statute involved in these cases were of no benefit to the dealers, except as they protected the honest dealers from the unfair competition of dishonest persons engaged in the same business.

It is contended on behalf of the appellant that the ordinance is, in effect, the same as a requirement that the appellant and other milk dealers shall pay for deputy health inspectors of the city for the purpose of detecting violations of the ordinance, and that this police duty is a purely public burden, which cannot be cast upon the individuals who happen to be engaged in the business concerned. The case of City of Chicago v. Weber, 246 Ill. 304, is cited in support of this argument. In that case an ordinance required all persons conducting theaters to employ firemen to be detailed by the fire marshal of the city from the regular city fire department and to pay for their services. It was required that a fireman should be present at each performance, in the uniform of the fire department, should report to the fire marshal and be subject to his orders, and should see that the exit doors were unlocked, the fire apparatus in

proper condition and all the appliances in working order. It was held that the city had no power to require theater owners to employ and pay a city fireman to be present at each performance, and it was stated that the principle involved was the same as in Gridley v. City of Bloomington, 88 Ill. 554, and City of Chicago v. O'Brien, 111 id. 532, where it was held that the burden of keeping sidewalks free from obstructions by snow could not be laid upon the private owners of adjoining property, and Village of Lemont v. Jenks, 197 Ill. 363, where a charge upon improved lots as compensation for the benefits of increased fire protection, in addition to the regular water rates, was held unauthorized by law. The principle has no application to this case, which relates to the supervision, by law, of a business directly concerning the public health. There is no article of food in more general use than milk; none whose impurity or unwholesomeness may more quickly, more widely and more seriously affect the health of those who use it. The regulation of its sale is an imperative duty which has been universally recognized. This regulation in minute detail is essential, and extends from the health and keeping of the cows which produce the milk, through all the processes of transportation, preservation and delivery to the consumer. Not only may laws and ordinances require that milk offered for sale shall be pure, wholesome and free from the bacilli of any disease, but they may and do, in order to produce this result, prescribe the manner in which such purity, wholesomeness and freedom from disease shall be secured and made to appear. The cows may be required to be registered with a designated public authority; the dairies to be conducted and managed according to prescribed regulations, and, together with the dairy utensils, subjected to inspection; the receptacles in which milk is contained to be of prescribed character and capacity; the labels to be placed according to fixed regulations and to contain certain required information; the milk to be pre

pared in the manner, at the times and by the means directed and at all times to be subject to inspection. These may be drastic restrictions upon a private business, but experience and the increasing knowledge of the causes of disease and the agencies of its propagation have demonstrated the necessity of such restrictions to the preservation of the public health. The object of all such restrictions is the preservation of the public health, and as a means to that end the protection of the general public against dishonest vendors of milk. They all impose inconveniences and expense upon the dealers in milk, but they are not on that account unreasonable, unjust or oppressive. Legislatures and city councils, in the exercise of the police power, may prohibit all things hurtful to the health and safety of society even though the prohibition invade the right of liberty or property of an individual. (Booth v. People, 186 Ill. 43.) Such an enactment must be an appropriate measure for the promotion of the public health, safety or welfare. We cannot say that the requirements complained of in the ordinance under review are not adapted to the object sought or are not reasonable. Statutes or ordinances have been held valid which required a vendor of milk to register his herd of cattle with the live stock board; (State v. Broadbelt, 89 Md. 565;) which required vendors of milk to furnish, gratuitously, samples of milk for inspection and analysis on application of sanitary inspectors; (State v. Dupaquier, 46 La. Ann. 577;) which authorized milk inspectors to enter any place where milk is stored and take specimens of the milk whenever the inspectors had reason to believe it was adulterated; (Commonwealth v. Carter, 132 Mass. 12;) and which prohibited bringing into the city for sale any milk or cream from cows outside the city unless the packages containing it were marked with a stamp, tag or impression bearing the name of the owner of the cow from which such milk was drawn, giving his place of business, city, street and number or other proper address,

and unless the owner of such cow should file in the office of the commissioner of health a certificate of a duly authorized veterinary surgeon stating that such cow had been tested with tuberculin and found free from tuberculosis or other contagious diseases. Adams v. City of Milwaukee, 144 Wis. 371; State v. Nelson, 66 Minn. 166; Nelson v. City of Minneapolis, 112 id. 16.

The appellant insists that the recording device is impracticable; that the record can be made by using water and heating it, without any milk; that the pointer can be manipulated to show a temperature different from the actual temperature; that the dial can be taken out and marked by hand, and that the number of dealers and extent of territory covered by them is so great that it would be physically impossible for the officers of the department of health to visit the places where milk is pasteurized and change the dials between the time of each pasteurization and the next. These are questions of judgment and discretion, the determination of which must be left to the legislative department. If the apparatus should not record the temperature accurately at all times or should not indicate the length of time the temperature was maintained, or if it can be manipulated so as not to show an accurate record, these are matters for the city council to consider. Courts cannot overrule the determination by the city council that a particular method of protecting the public health should be adopted unless it is so clearly and manifestly wrong that there can be no doubt about it. A personal inspection of all milk sold in the city would be manifestly a requirement difficult, if not impossible, to carry out. Even though the recording apparatus may be manipulated by a dishonest dealer so as to show an untrue record, the city council may have thought its use better for the protection of the public than a system by which no record was preserved but the health officers were compelled to rely wholly upon the dealer, and we cannot say that they were clearly and un

mistakably wrong. Whether officers of the health department shall be provided in sufficient number to visit the places where pasteurization takes place between each pasteurization and the next is also a question for the council. The decree is affirmed. Decree affirmed.

THE CITY OF ROCK ISLAND, Appellee, vs. C. B. MARSHALL et al. Appellants.

Opinion filed April 23, 1914.

1. INSTRUCTIONS-instruction authorizing jury to reject opinions of witnesses at will is erroneous. An instruction stating that the opinions of expert witnesses are entitled to such weight as the jury may deem proper to give them, and that the jury "may accept or reject such opinions as you may accept as true, or reject as false any other facts in the case," is misleading and erroneous.

2. SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS—probate judge may preside in county court in special assessment case. The probate judge sitting in the county court under the conditions specified in the statute may hear and determine a special assessment case in such court. (City of Moline v. Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Co. 262 III. 52, followed.)

APPEAL from the County Court of Rock Island county; the Hon. BENJAMIN BELL, Judge, presiding.

SEARLE & MARSHALL, for appellants.

J. F. WITTER, City Attorney, for appellee.

Mr. JUSTICE VICKERS delivered the opinion of the court:

The city council of the city of Rock Island passed an ordinance for paving Thirty-fourth street from the south line of 7th avenue to the south line of 91⁄2 avenue. The cost of the improvement was to be paid by special taxation upon the lots contiguous to Thirty-fourth street. Upon a