MILK AND MORTALITY.

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 50 (Supplement)

MILK AND MORTALITY.

“We are enjoying a boom in. recoveries,” a well-known doctor connected with a certain institution recently remarked. “We are giving the babies something quite unusual —an almost unknown quantity, known as pure milk.'

The remark would have been lud*crous bad it been other than true and slightly tragic. A leading chemist, talking on the same subject, made a statement the sense of which was identical with the sense of the statement made by the doctor. “Mothers come to me,” be said, “with babies in every variety of condition—babies just beginning to ail and babies reduced to a mere handful. have tried this food and that food,’ thev state, ‘and the baby goes from bad to worse.’ To all of them I make the same reply. ‘There is a dairy up the road where they sell pure milk. Give your baby that and you give lithe best chance possible of pulling through.’ And in the large majority of ‘cases the life of the infant is saved.

The tragedy of the situatlon lies ia the fact of Australian mothers having to a large extent lost faith in the only

, u-uiv reared “by baud” can do food » on . The • dangers of ar- • » tsel - ? feeding have been recognised /tificial tee euj . in jo ralloe that tor to soo’l * r or two a law' has been the !!Xtion under which those having i» °P e „ 0 f infants may be prosecuted them anything but pure milk f0 n fill tave reached the age of twelve till they n l a w .enacted here ' 550 ijl'rnhably result in the actual star■ffouliP , iaro-0 percentage of the « population —and that in spite fact that the light for pure milk begun m our midst. “ Tho question is one necessarily af- , nv the still larger question of I ftct 5.1 milk supplv. For what reason gene ihou ands of gallons of milk brought 3 /?lv and nightly to me city t By far -fSansest .part of this supply is conImied by atiuhs,. a good percentage * Lnrbed ny the biscuit factories, 13 merest goes to be either “doctored ?,?’ or used with all risks attached by Tb i.bi r d of the Melbourne babies who to face tlte "chances «,«, hirh the bottle-fed baby is necessarily fronted. It may strengthen the of those interested locally in this important subject to learn the methods bv which the city of ivew York has attacked, and is attacking, the pure milk question. About three years ago the Medical •Society of New York devoted an evening to a discussion of the milk problem u connection with large cities, and the result of the meeting was to appoint four doctors to enquire into the subject. The first meeting of the _ Commission was devoted to a discussion of the problem, and how it might best be approached. The milk that is used ui large cities mush be gathered from divers and distant sources, transported many miles, and finally distributed, after many vicissitudes and changes, to the customer. To stand all this, the Commission naturally decided that the milk must leave the dairy clean and cool. To ensure the first condition the state of the cow sheds, the cows, me milkers and the utensils had all-to be considered. To ensure coolness the process of cooling and the means of transportation had to be taken into account. A meeting of dealers was called, and the result of the investigations made by the Commission was placed before them. They were invited to give their vieivs freely as to whether part of their milk could not be put out at an advanced standard for the benefit of infants and invalids. While many practical difficulties were urged, the general sense of the meeting seemed to be that, with some extra care and expense, many improvements could be made under proper guidance in putting out a strictly clean milk. A second meeting was then called of . dealers willing to have their milk examined and certified by the Commission, and a result of this was that in seven months 800 separate bacteriological examinations were made. Dr. Sarah Belcher undertook these examinations, and it was owing to her zeal and. enthusiasm that much of the success of the work was due. So it has come to pass in New York that, without evoking the influences of the majestic law, the public has bc§n put m a position to buy pure and wholesome milk, while the dii'ty dealer-is gradually being crowded out of business. Dirty • dairymen who endeavour to rectify witli boracic acid harm that has been done by dirty cows, dirty milkers, and dirty utensils, are a menace to public health and public notions of decency. To “get at” nlthi of this description is always difficult. It Is not, however, impossible. An inspector appointed by a medical commission should be given power to register all retailers of milk. A license fee should be collected annually from such retailers, who would still further serve their own interests by procuring milk only from licensed milk farms. The licensing of milk farms is a question of supreme importance, and no farmer should be licensed who did not guarantee to use a steamer for the proper cleaning of all utensils and a patent cooler for the milk? He should also guarantee to send no milk from his farm at a higher temperature than OOdeg—lower if possible. The necessity for cleanliness is more ■understandable by most, people than the necessity for coolness. The following may enlighten the latter:—Fifteen drops of milk allowed to cool in an ordinary barn contained, after twelve hours, 124,000,000 germs. The same quantity of milk cooled to OOdeg, and then allowed to stand twelve hours at ”odeg, contained /o.UDUjOOO germs, while fifteen drops cooled to OOdeg, and kept at the same temperature, contained 6,000,000. It may be mentioned that germs are not necessarily malignant. The first milk u ii twelve hours was sour, 1° smell and taste, the last was absolutely unchanged.—,“The Age.”