MEDICAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, 2 September 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

MEDICAL NOTES.

MILK CONTROL HEALTH AND BUSINESS. BRITISH DISCOVERIES. (By PERITUS.) There is a local difference of opinion about the need for milk control, not only as a trade, but as a community affair, and it is of interest to all New Zealanders who would eeo this country fully prosperous to know what other countries aro doing. Australia is. moving in the direction of popularising Australian butter by addressing the public direct. In one of the leading medical journals for last month is the following advertisement: — AUSTRALIAN BUTTER FOR VITAMINS "A" AND "D." "The good and uniform potency of the Australian . . . butters makes them a particularly valuable source of vitamins A unci X> for the British population. . . " — Iteport ot? investigators working in the service of the Medical Research Council at the Lister Institute, London. There are about 50,000 medical men I who see this journal weekly. An English Investigation. The National Institute for Dairying Research in England has issued a report. This comes after the milk control methode adopted at Home since 1927 have been many years gathering efficiency. The comparison of these figures with those of our own statistics, and more particularly with those of Denmark, should prove of value and most instructive to farmers concerned in milk production. For some years English dairymen who have been able to advertise "tubercle-free herds" have been paid a high price for their milk, and others able to guarantee pure milk have gained a steadily improving position. We have been told here that the purity of milk should be ensured at its source—the farm—and not as resulting from after manipulation. The factories should not bo clearing stations for cleansing soiled cream and turning such cream into butter, but should be studied by the farmer questioningly, "Is this factory sufficiently safe and clean to receive my pure cream without harming it?" As it is, the. factory is relied upon to correct all errors of the farm, and any neglect on the part of the farm staff. Perfect butter can come- only from faultless cream; all clso is the result of skill and care of the factory staff.

Effect of Impurities. Impurities of a chemical kind have been found to cause bad flavour in milk. For instance, wheu copper vessels are used, one and a half parts of copper in 1,000,000 parts of milk will produce.an oily flavour, and it will not keep well. The taste will also come up in dried milk and in butter if there is that trace of copper. The vitamin content of milk varies with the seasons. "The year was divided into three periods, in which the animals were fed under different conditions: (1) Spring and Bummer (pasture) feeding; (2) autumu (intermediate) feeding; and (3) winter (stall) feeding. It was found that both vitamins A and D showed a marked rise in summer and autumn, the curvo for D having a sharper peak and falling more rapidly in autumn than that for A. "Tho importance of milk control schemes and a bonus system by payment according to the quality of the raw milk is shown by the very great improvement in the results when the two systems work together. In 1927, for example, in one series of farms only 14 per cent of the milk reached Certified and 38.5 per cent reached Grade A standards. In 1932, after these systems had been in force, the figures had risen to Co per cent and 94.S per cent respectively. The same is true of pasteurised milk also—e.g., in one case an average keeping quality of tho bottled product of 5.3 units (1 unit equals 0 hours at 00 deg. F.) was raised after two months' supervision to 10.2 units."

If a great meeting of dairymen met to discuss the best means of putting the purest milk of highest quality into the house of every customer, the public would not boggle over a halfpenny or a penny a quart and the- milkman would be recognised for what lie is, a purveyor of one of the most important foods of man. Thousands of young lives depend on a supply of milk, and hundreds die eventually as the result of taking contaminated milk in early youth. Even the doctor has no greater responsibility in dealing with young lives.