SAVE THE BABIES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 209, 3 September 1919, Page 12

SAVE THE BABIES.

The subject of pure milk for the baVjies I is being taken in hand in England. A lot of talk has been given to it iby the women's societies in New Zealand, but no real effort has been made to alter conditions from fear of vested and municipal interests. In America they have given us a lead, and are already saving thousands of lives every year; to take only two cit'.es—'Xew York lias reduced the mortality of babies under one year from 135 per 1,000 to 100, and Cincinnati from 139 to 93 per 1,000. And the | reduction is still going on. ! The method briefly is: Healthy cows, especially non-tubercu- I lotts cows. It is estimated that iv Eng- | land 30,000 babies get tuberculosis from milk every year, and that 3,000 die from , it. J Clean cows, clean milkers, clean sheds. I At least 90 per cent of London milk j contains manure, and this manure not only contains tlie tubercle germ in about 10 per cent of cases, hut also the mi- ' crobes which cause the deadly summer diarrhoea. Of the milk supplied to London hospitals and Mothers' Welcomes S3 per cent contained over 200,000 bacteria per cubic centimetre (equal to 10 drops), while in America, when their scheme was merely talked about, only 45 per l cent of the samples were as -bad as this. | After the scheme came into operation the number was reduced to one per cent. "Delivery in clean sealed vessels, which are kept cold all the time. The milk has no chance of picking up contamination on tlie way, or otherwise deteriorating. Test the milk supplied to you by looking at the bottom of a glass in which the I milk has stood, covered, for an hour or two; if there is sediment it is probably manure; clean milk gives no sediment of any kind. Of course, clean milk will cost a little more; in America the extra cost is three farthings a quart—say £50 to £10 for each baby saved.