THE MILK QUESTION REVIEWED.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5731, 28 October 1905, Page 16

THE MILK QUESTION REVIEWED.

('lo Iho Editor, ‘N.Z. TirnesAj Sir,— r rho attack on the milk trade-, has new lasted Id yeur-;, which beatn < -idj'T the Japan.or Bom war, and although neither armistice nor peace is propoc/ed it may bo julrnissiMe to review i he position, count tlio cost, and gauge the prospect of public profit. Mby Muto ;<bouM !jc war has never boon i-liown. Tho b'lfLlo cry of tin- aMm-king parly js “Protection of tho Public. M but events f.'o lo show that the public turns a par'd cu lari y Mind sM'* to that claim. Take as an instance t ho case against myself in the Court the other day. ft was the first serious aUompt hy the Department to show tho public that it was their protector. It scored in tin* Court. That was easy, fh.it what about The public it was J rying lo ingratiate, who, after all, will have the settling of these questions? Tfm answer is that they have decided, against 'lie Dcpnrtiront and tho reason lor that is what I now wish fo explain, prolacing my remarks with, the statement that I h?w<» received tho most kindly assurances of confidence from practically all niy customers, the last but not least of which 1 bidi’ the liberty (with apologies) of quoting in full:—’’Lady Steward wishes to add her testimony to the exooliemt quality of Mr Bodley's milk. Bolton Terrace, Oct. 17, Iffdo.” FUtoon years ago, a coterie of gentleman met in a lawyer's office and dialled a dairies’ regulation byc-iaw. It was not expert, ns one of its clauses enjoined the cleaning of cans in three eomnc.s. of which boiling; water comprised the first. About the same time a financial magnate was asked to estimate the cost of cornering the city milk supply and worked it out at £6OOO, which was modest, hut fruitless. Various other efforts were made, but fell through, till one day there was a real ih. tier in tho dove-cots. Like the nows that tho Armada was off the coast of Cornwall came the nows that 7t» farmer.; hatl signed up conditional agreotnc its with a company lo Mill their milk only through that company. This meteor exploded too soon .aid foil to earth prematurely. Tin? next move was a bye-law, very sly but very effective - , but the milk producers, who hy this l time had grown alert and were well ! advised, got a motion Indore the Mouse of ftcpnvcutativvs which sea rex i the bye-law off also grass and no further Attempts wore made till the Foods anti Drugs Prill of last session, which was iidrai.ly engineered into a shndy nook, Went which it Ims never since emerged. During the portal of these machinations. the Agricultural Department has been doing exr client work, without too much harassment or a-perity, in improving the conditions under which :milk is produced, and Dr MacgiiFs vulgarism, ‘(Fed on tho rubbish lip and j milked an tho muck heap/’ was not only a poor tribute to that work.’ but a reflection on ills own. Tho Agricultural Department have done their part in assisting tho production of fresh milk, and tlio concern of tho public will bo to j;et it in that form and not in tho jArfciflcial forms favoured by those who by this time ought to havo learned that fresh milk can never be cornered.

It ia my abject now to show that an Infinitosshual quantity of boracic acid neither detracts from nor adds anything io fresh milk, but prolongs what may 'ho termed its natural life over a period long enough for it to be used up with tho greatest .economy. In tho Old Country it is a much more vital question than here, owing to tho greater congestion of cities and tho dawning belief that milk substitutes—milk heat■rd or treated by machinery in any way -—are responsible for tho deterioration of tho modern man. The fight then resolves itself into fresh milk v. stored milk. Conspicuous instances have como from London and Liverpool of doctors protesting against boracic bye-laws being

11‘1'xl to f-U'. Uto suiqilv of fr.'-h mill-: off from the pr-cnlm >! ..xp.-rl s from till' soli-sir.ita of I !i<; nmliiMl pro-f'.\'-inii (I'm'" to into ill© I.OX :txil li'-nr ial,« 'Vitm-c* zi'oiinst. it, li’.u doctors on the higher .g| 0 iiiviiriobly liosimtc to say anyfhinr' amiin-t tlie modorato u.-o of boriwic Tici'l. ootal.lv tli<! mi-'lical confnr-fTK-o in -Sydney »et up to got it prohibitm! willoli, oii tho o’ hor litiml, r«om-iuon']-(l its uso to tho extent of ono--ixioontli I .or font in mill:, ono-oighth in Ivit toi - anil ono-ijimr'or in croani.

'Mio docio!.. firsi rnonUonocl seem to think limy havo a role to furry out, ami thov j,lay tho nine all right, to ■.vhi at tlio milk sttooliors havo to iliincc. Hut it is tho piihlio who havo to ’pay tlm pi nor, not only in inci c-usod price, hut in docnaaod ((Utility and reduced economy. Taking tho .ii-guraonts of those false ivil ncvies, the most of thorn will ho .’.mini >o he foumla.tionlesK innuendos and g:a-o-< s—’’in my opinion,” ■ I Loliove.” and "tho usual quantity,'’ hliadoivs ill I are dissipated at the fir-,t t:oueh of inquny. "It is injurious,” tlu-v say. "for infants ami invalids.” I know a i:-.o whore a six mouths’ old infant eivficd to he attended by it» doctor Hi'oaiise "it could not possibly live out i ]u> week'.” It ft st ill alive and in the best of health, and all it got after the doctor ceased tea calls was pure milk, with boracic in it, till the child was out oi* danger. I also know another case where an adult was laid low with tvuhoiil. 'flic rapid recovery was attributed to the “excellent milk” supplied, That milk had boracic acid iu il. Thov have no authentic, foundation for (.heir statement that boracic acid is injurious for infants and invalids, and what is more they don’t know what they are talking about. “It retards fermentation,” said another wise man from tho Hast, and “anything which imnodes fermentation causes indigestion, not only of tho stomach, but of the ehvle in the course of its assimilation into (ho blood.” This again is a mere hazard and a guess, and has no foundation in fact.

Animal- differ in their food requirements. fbg.s are gross feeders and re- | nuiro fermentation in their food, and ! boracic arid is injurious to them. Kut | man in all his stages, more especially j tho early stages, is by nature a clean j feeder and fermentation in the food is just as, injurious as it is in the liquor, and therefore boracic ac:d which is not good lor pigs, is good for the human' species. In this connection I could name a chemist who invariably put half a coa spoonful of the acid into his,daily supply of half a gallon of mitt, and his family wore especially big and robust. “Oh. ' well.” said a doctor I was conversing with, “the conNimiors may put it in themselves, hut tho milkmifn must not!” and that was his ignorance. Roracic acid is very feeble in its action, and according to ono authority, no matter how large a close may bo taken, no serious derangement follows. Fermentation in milk commences from the moment of milking. and tho acid, to produce the best results from the smallest application, mast ho administered at tho time of milking: and, again, it has to bo dissolved, which must bo done either withv hot water, which would be further adulteration, or it must bo put in the milking inicket, where tho action of milking and tho warmth of the milk readily dissolve it. Once that stage is reached and the assurance established that the milk will keep till it can be delivered and used and the next delivery at hand, it is possible for all unnecessary handling to be eliminated, and tho milk is much cheaper and fresher. Tho bacteria bogey won’t work, because. although milk is a nidus for germs so is tho human body, and it would be just n,s feasible to talk about doing away with the one as the other. Tho remedy is pure air, and, as I have already said, the Agricultural Department have done much mono in a

cuio: v.-av for pure su moil ndi ngs for ;hc mil,; in the country fhan tho Health Oflioers havo done in their Department, i),- V So';::'- was pence’ i v in order when jio said that contamination once entering the milk cannot be removed, and in no cast; is prevention so superior lo euro. Boracic acid lakes no account of bacteria, and if contaminating bacteria havo entered the milk, the rcpnlsiveue.s, accompanying tlio deterioration w.l! be quite as marked and that saving clause is not lost. There arc preservatives which correct contamination or temnorarily cure it, hut they arc more or less irritant poisons, a characteristic quite foiiigu U> boracic acid, which is equally soothing applied to the ronghcot exterior or most delicate interior. One cow’s milk and humanised milk have claimed attention lately. Though very few people havo any confidence in one cow’s milk, it is occasionally asked for. and when it is asked for it is fiafo to assume tho doctor is in a dilemma and chooses that course as a last resource Tie orders it and leaves the details to tho mother, who passes tho responsibility on to the dairyman. Ho repeals the shibboleth, she passes it bach to tho doctor, and every one is sati-fled, though tlio chance of benefit to the child is as weak as human nature can make it. Many details might ho attended to, but they are not, such as the nature of tho cow. or tho particular con’struction of her milk and more especially the time she lias been in milk, according to the ago of tho child, tho earlier period giving more albumen. which probably tho child is most in need of. And that reminds mo that the doctors don't valuo tho albumen in milk, although at times it is tho only constituent tho baby assimilates, vomiting up the curd, etc., at every meal, and yet thriving. Dr AlcLauriu’s recommendation of nowderod milk, that it curds in a granular state and is therefore more digestible, is proof that albumen is of no account, as the granular condition is undoubtedly due to destruction of tho albumen and would, therefore, to tho common garden sort, appear to- bo a detriment rather than a gain to tho quality of tho milk. I won’t take tlio humanised milk question out of Dr Truby King’s hands!—merely suggest a homely method not contained in his disquisition, as follows:—Make sweet curd, draw off tho whey and use it instead of water to dilute tho baby's milk, which latter should bo .taken from tho top after standing for a little while. Can© sugar, according to tho German doctor who first promulgated tho idea, is quite good enough for tho sweetening. These remarks, rea-d between tho linos, coupled with tho fact that all housekeepers keen boracic acid by them and understand its uses, will demonstrate that its use makes more for tho prevalence of fresh milk than stoned milk, and the reason fifteen years havo been utterly wasted in tile effort to nut tho milk business on a satisfactory footing is due to those efforts being made too much in tho interest of those who would like to monopolise tho trade and too little in tho interest of tho general public.—l am, etc.. HENHY BODLEY. October 20th. .