CORRESPONDENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

PROPOSED ENGLISH SOCIETY. 10 THE EDITOR.' Sir, — In reply to your correspondent, " Englishman," I have much pleasure hi staling thai, if lie would be good enough to set the ball rolling, I for one would, meet with him and discuss the advisability of forming such a society, which is (as he states) sadly wanted, and I have no doubt would, if started, grow very rapidly. — I am, etc., ENGLISHMAN No. 2., IMPURE MILK AND INFANT MORTALITY. TO TIH EDITOR. Sir, — I read with interest the article* on above subject in Saturday's Post and Times ; and as a mother, and the wife of; a milk-vendor, I should like to be per-j mitted to state a few of my views cat the matter. It is a lamentable factthafe nowadays the majority of infants ara bottle-fed, and cow's milk has come to be regarded as the natural food foij babies, whereas, at its best and purest, it is only a substitute. It seems to ma that the thing of primary importance is to educate mothers to a sense of the necessity of feeding their own offspring.: As a matter of fact, ninety-nine out ofj every hundred women are perfectly nil physically for this duty if thej are will* ing, but how many present-day mother* are glad of any excuse to evade if!} It is ,a well-known, fact, besides, thafi the life of a naturally-fed child is worth] three of a bottle-fed, while 90 per cent, of the deaths from infantile complaints occur amongst the latter. There is, without doubt, cow's millc distributed in Wellington that is not? o f - the purest and freshest; but, as Dr« Newman truly states, things are not so bad in this respect as has been stated ? and there is plenty of pure, fresh millc being delivered in the city. Personally, I have never had experience- of any .but,' the best, and plenty of ifc ; and my chfldl of nearly 'two years, who'haß never had' a day's sickness in her life, has' been; reared on Wellington milk' (neither pas-i teurised nor humanised, but simply as it comes down fromth'e farm, and-'never, less than two , pints daily) for, the pastil year, after ceasing to be naturally fed., I also cannot say how heartily I agree with Dr. Newman in his remarks aboutl the dirty and unsanitary receptables in, which some consumers keep their millc being responsible for a great deal of! the trouble. We have daily evidence o£ it here, both in the vessels sent in foti milk, and in those put out at Che cus, tomers houses to receive the miik de-. livered. On many occasions we haya 1 had to leave without delivering thai early-morning milk simply because tha condition of the vessel would have prov-s ed fatal to the freshest milk. Again, is it the impure milk, or tha 1 lack of milk, that ails the children?! I know of a family in decent cirennn stances, within a stone's throw of here, consisting of parents and three small children (the eldest about three years, the youngest a few months old and en« tirely bottle-fed) the total quantity ofi milk supplied daily to which family is two pints. Is it the impure milk ia this case which accounts for the sickly appearance of the little ones? I know, it is not, the milk being the same as I! use myself ; it is the inadequate quantity. Possibly the deficiency of milk is made up by a diet for the children of such dainties as fried sansages and pickled cabbage, followed by a drink of tea, which I know to be a representative dinner for another unfortunate baby of twelve months, residing in the same vicinity. And yet the impure milk is blamed as being the chief factor in the alarming death-rate amongst infants. Considering the ignorance of so large a proportion of mothers, the marvel to me is not that so many children of tender age succumb, but that so many, struggle on to maturity. Dr. Newman has hit the nail on the head when he refers to the cooling of the milk being of such vital importance. So much of the milk coming into the city from so great a distance, and the railway facilities not being of the best, it is absolutely imperative that themilld be cooled down to a very low degree im-s mediately after milking. This is ths secret of the whole matter if the milk is to keep fresh for any length of ,tima in hot weather. Proper cooling apparatus installed at every farm is what is wanted, n*re than depots in ihe city, here for the pasteurising and humanising of milk that is verging on staleness before it reaches the depot. — I am, etc., A SCOTTISH MOTHEU. ' 10th May.