MILK CRUSADE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18634, 8 March 1926, Page 4

MILK CRUSADE.

REVELATIONS IN MELBOURNE. SAMPLES BELOW STANDARD. (FROM OUR OWN COEKESrONDENT.) SYDNEY, February 19. A medical truth is that the health of a large city is only as good as its milk supply is pure. Doctors are continually uttering warnings against the general supply of milk to.largo cities such as Sydtoey and Melbourno, especially that which comes from the large "coldmilk" companies which meet these cities' needs to a great extent. The people seem to evince, generally, but a lukewarm interest in the purity of their milk, and trust to the occasional raids by Board of Health inspectors on milk distributors' vans-to keep the supplies at the required standard. Some parts of New Zealand, and Wellington, in particular, are better-ordered than here, and Wellington's supply is often held up as a model for the cities of this country. A Melbourne newspaper, the "Herald," set out to educate the pub-, lie of that city as to the quality of its milk, and its investigations, carried out with the aid of the bacteriological staff of the Melbourne University, revealed a state of affairs that can only be described as lamentable. Testing the Milk., The "Herald" provided twenty householders with sterilised billycans, and of these 19 co-operated by securing their usual milk and placing about a pint of each lot into sterilised bottles, also provided by the newspaper. Theso bottles were sealed and forwarded to Dr. Bull, at the University. Twenty other householders taking milk in, sealed bottles took double their usual quantity, and a bottle from each of them was conveyed with the others to Dr.. Bull. A third series of ten samples were purchased at various suburban mixed shops, and after being bought in sterilised cans, were

placed in sterilised, bottles, sealed, and also despatched to the university. In this .way, the "Herald" hoped to secure as many varied samples as possible. Its main idea was to do what it alleged the Government had refused to do —carry. out a proper test of the nrlk' as it'Treached the consumer. The Government it appears, carry out bacteriological tests of milk as it leaves dairy farms and dairies, but the paper considered that between these originating sources of supply and the consumer there were many opportunities for contamination. The paper's knowledge of the methods of production, transportation, and distribution, made it feel that Government complacency on the matter was ill-founded. The "Herald" took as its standard, that of New York, which is that milk containing over 100,000 bacteria per c.c. is not lit for human consumption. This standard, it asserts, should. not be lower for any large city. Below Standard. ■ Tho examination by Dr. Bull and his assistants showed tlvjit GO per cent, of the samples were below that set standard, and therefore unfit for human consumption. In other words, three ' out of every five of the 49 "samples submitted to Dr. Bull were found to contain more than 100,000 micro-organisms to the cubic centimetre (plate count). Two or three of the samples contained as many as 15,000,000 of these microorganisms to the cubic centimetre. Tho Herald" regards the result of its test as evidence that the supervision of the Government department responsible is lax art* inefficient, and that inspection is not sufficiently strict. It is needless to say that the people will think so,