PASTEURISATION OF MILK.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 333, 21 October 1908, Page 3

PASTEURISATION OF MILK.

, Before members of the Royal Sanitary 'Institute in London, Professor H. R. KenHvood,. in ; an; address on "The Pasteurisation of Milki" defined tho term "pasteurisation" as the'.exposure of milk, previously cleansed by filtration or centrifugalisation, to a tem'perature not exceeding 75 degrees C. for a 'short period;. and then rapidly cooling it to 'a temperature as much beloiv 16 degrees C. as possible. • Under such, conditions it .was Ipossible-: —v. . . .. (a.) To reduce the micro-organisms, which were capable of being cultivated on'artificial media to less than 5 per'cent, of those which dan be cultivated from the original milk; to thereby destroy or inhibit the fomentation bacteria so as to delay the natural souring "of the milk.'some - twelve > to twenty-four hours, the' milk meanwhile keeping' perfectly wholesome. (b.) To destroy the specific organisms of tuberculosis, diphtheria, enteric fever, cholera, dysentery, and doubtless, also, in ;largo those organisms that were casual of zymotic diarrhoea; and : (c.) To dp away with the necessity for drugging the milk with harmful chemical It was therefore a valuable measure of protection against tho recurrence of. those milk-borne epidemics which had .figured largely in epidemic records; it was. a useful means of reducing tho grave risks of. the infection of tuberculosis in milk, and the evidence was overwhelming that it reduced the suffering and -mortality ■among infants who were artificially fed.