540 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



When, however, we consider the condition of the milk as 

 generally supplied, we are at once confronted with the fact 

 that nothing in town or country is so comparatively rare as 

 milk which is pure, reasonably clean and of good quality. In 

 London it is possible to obtain a pure fresh milk produced 

 hygienically and supplied under proper conditions — that is, in 

 sealed bottles. But the milk thus produced and supplied con- 

 stitutes a minute fraction of the total supply. 



The milk-supply of London is drawn from the surrounding 

 country within a radius of some two hundred miles. Soon after 

 the cows are milked, as a rule the milk is reduced in temperature 

 by the use of some form of cooling machinery. This cooling 

 undoubtedly retards bacterial growth but it is seldom carried 

 out with any approach to efficiency. Ice or refrigerating 

 machinery is almost never used ; in fact, the temperature of the 

 cooled milk depends upon the temperature of the water-supply 

 at the farm. Hence in winter, when the cooling is least 

 required, the reduction of temperature is most efficient, whilst 

 in summer, when cooling is most urgently required, the re- 

 duction of the temperature of the milk is so slight as scarcely 

 to make any appreciable difference. In regard to the details 

 involved in the production, collection and delivery of milk, the 

 conditions are so hopelessly bad, the ignorance and carelessness 

 displayed on all sides are so great, that no serious improvement 

 can be attained without radical alterations. 



As a rule the farm where milch cows are kept is exceedingly 

 filthy. The cow-house is dirty : in the great majority of cases 

 it is insanitary in the extreme ; the drainage and ventilation 

 arrangements could scarcely be worse. Everything is soiled 

 with cow-dung, urine, dirty fodder, etc. The cows themselves 

 are covered with filth, dried dung being its chief constituent. 

 The floor on which they stand is covered with an oozing mass 

 of excreta and the effluvium baffles description. It need hardly 

 be said that, under such conditions, the cows appear to be far 

 from healthy ; they seem, in general, to look ill and out of 

 condition. It is scarcely matter for wonder that tuberculosis is 

 rife — indeed, that this is one of the scourges of farms. 



It is characteristic that wholesome food is excluded from 

 the dietary and that brewers' grains, oil-cake and other artificial 

 products having a definitely prejudicial effect on the milk — 

 especially when it is intended for the use of infants — are much 



