MODERN TENDENCIES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3929, 21 July 1937, Page 11

MODERN TENDENCIES

MJLK AND THE CHILDREN. THE CASE OF PASTEURISATION. (By M.A.) Do more than half the people on the earth drink milk? Most of us, L' asked this question, would certainly answer without hesitation, “Yes, ot course,” but our answer almost certainly would be wrong. Consider the , Chinese with their prejudice, the mil--1 lions of people in India who, for religious reasons, will not eat dairy pro. ducts, the areas of Africa where dairy cattle cannot live because of fly-borne disease, the far north of Australia, the islands in the Pacific and tropical countries generally, where there are no cows, dairies or milk bars. European exiles in these countries certainly use milk derivatives—dried or condensed milk, butter and cheese —but the native peoples, having never had dairy products, have adjusted their diet to manage very well without them. Breast feeding is continued longer than in European countries, and for the toddlers there are other foods than milk. In Nauru, for example, fish is given to very young children; in Manchuria, for centuries, the soya bean has provided food easy to digest. In European and Englisnspeaking countries the consumption of dairy products has increased during this century. Better transport facilities, the introduction of the separator and refrigeration, the invention of ice cream, the development of salesmanship have contributed to this increase. Is this increased consumption of dairyproducts entirely a good thing or aie there any’ disadvantages ? The cow was intended by' Nature to produce for a period following the birth of its calf a sufficient quantity’ of milk to nourish the calf until it could digest herbage. By selective breeding, artificial feeding, prolonged

and regular stimulation, man has J modified this natural process and induced the cow to produce much larger quantities of milk over a period far longer than that intended by Nature. We have tricked the cdw into becoming a machine to convert fodder into milk for human use. Does man pay for this trick played on Nature as he so often has to pay when he alter, a natural process ? The penalty is not paid by all of us, but a heavy tax is exacted from a small proportion in disease and crippling. What diseases has man suffered from his association with the cow? It has been known for many years that milk is one of the best media in which bacteria can live and multiply. Epidemics of typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, dysentery, scarlet fever, streptococcal sore throat, have time and again been sheeted home to contaminated milk. With better supervision of dairies th? risk of these diseases has been reduced, but epidemics still occur at intervals frequent enough to be disturbing. W The danger of infecting children by tuberculous milk has been known for many years, but such is the apathy of

the consumer and the salesmanship of the producer that little has been done to prevent its occurrence, or the consumer has been lulled into a false sense of security by talk of tuberculin tested cows. Instance after instance has occurred to show that the tuberculin test, as usually carried our, is not enough. It does not guarantee safe milk.

At present public interest has been focussed upon the problem of the cripple. Large sums of money have been given, beautiful buildings have been erected to treat children suffering from tuberculosis of bone and joint, usually hip or spine. The disease is often arrested, but a return to perfect function is not common, though in New Zealand and Australia the effect is less tragic than in older countries. Does it not seem absurd to spend money and time and energy to treat disease which need not occur ? It is not fair to blame infected milk for every case of tuberculosis of bone ■and joint. Many children are certainly suffering from human sources, but about 15 per cent, of children suffering from bone tuberculosis —the children whom one sees in orthopaedic hospitals in plaster or stretched on frames would have been normal children at school if their milk and cream had been regularly scalded ot pasteurised. The hope of the cripple for _th« future lies in the fact that the. majority of cripples are manufactured—they are made, not born, cripples. Quite easily, with a little expense, some of the saddest crippling could be eliminated if people realised that milk, cream and butter, while nourishing foods, can also be the means of conveying crippling disuse. Milk can be made safe so easpy by home scalding or efficient pasteurisation—the only thing lost by either process is a vitamin easily replaced by orange juice or tomato juice. At present, all over New Zealand, children are drinking uncooked milk and eating separated cream. As surely as it has happened in the past, so in the future, will a number of these children pay a heavy price in pain and disease and permanent crippling, and all unnecessary. Some countries are conscious of this; others are not. In Scotland any visitor who is interested in cripples cannot enjoy the beauty of the country, for the number of lame, distorted peo-ple-lives spoiled by disease which need not have happened. It has been stated by veterinarians that, even at present, 20 per cent, of the milk sent to Edinburgh contains active organisms of tuberculosis. Edinburgh has built a beautiful hospital to treat children once they have become infected, but little oi' nothing has beeii done to stop the manufacture of a fresh supply of cripples. On the other hand, in Toronto, the attitude is, “If a disease can be prevented, why not prevent it? Why should any child be crippled needlessly?” In Toronto in 1914 a law was passed, which has been rigidly enfored, that no raw milk be sold in the city. At the same time propa ganda and education were undertaken to teach the people the menace of uncooked milk. Since 1915, every tuberculous tissue obtained from persons in Toronto hospitals has been examined to determine whether the organisms came from the human or'

the cow. None of the bovine type have been found in Toronto since that law was passed. So, quite simply, has one form of crippling disease been stopped at the source. In our own Dominion at present we are exhorted daily to drink more milk. Let us insist that the milk is safe to drink by asking before we buy ft, “Has it been pasteurised?” Until pasteurisation has been made universal, parents can safeguard their children by boiling for three minutes ail milk used in the household.