258 



THE AGFJCULTURAL NEWS. 



August \6, 1913. 



advertisement, in spite of a large consumption of milk 

 and in spite of a big production of ordinances. Hence 

 the recent revelations in the Leeward Islands have 

 caused considerable consternation. It would appear from 

 reports that have recently been issued that practically 

 all the milk sold in Antigua and St. Kitts by street 

 hucksters is watered — and there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that this adulteration has been practised for many 

 years past. V'urthermore, the quality of the milk sup- 

 plied by contract to public institutions is open to grave 

 suspicion. The above announcement relates only to the 

 chemical composition of the milk: there is reason to 

 believe also that the methods adopted in the disposal 

 of the produce are insanitary in these islands, and the 

 frequent outbreaks of typhoid fever do not tend to allay 

 public an.xiety in this direction. Except in the case of 

 one or two of the larger islands — though even in these 

 the methods of disposal of milk are open to criticism — 

 there exists in all probability, in the West Indies, 

 a large amount of undetected adulteration and jioUu- 

 tion, although a degree of personal safety is ensured 

 by the common practice of boiling. At ihe same 

 time it appears to be becoming urgently necessary 

 for the establishment of a definite organization of 

 control. 



It is to be feared that, outside ecclesiastical realms, 

 the laying down of a rule or a law is, by itself, insuf- 

 ficient. There must be thorough execution. In the 

 present case of milk supply — and the same holds good 

 for meat supply — there are several features which render 

 the execution of the law unfit for untrained officers, 

 for the duties are, to a large extent, of a technical 

 nature. On the other hand, small communities are 

 under a disadvantage, in that the duties of milk and 

 meat inspection are not of a sufficiently extensive nature 

 to justify the appointment of special officers. It follows 

 therefore that these duties, if they are to be performed, 

 must be amalgamated with others. Sjjeaking generally, 

 there are four kinds of professional men who are ade- 

 quately trained to undertake or to direct food inspection ; 

 medical men, chemists, bacteriologists and veterinarians. 

 Medical men, as a rule, unless holdmg a consulting 

 appointment or restricted to laboratory work at hos- 

 pitals, are not in a position to undertake routine work 

 of this nature; in small islands their duties are too 

 general, and their times too uncertain, for such work. 

 Chemists, or bacteriologists, if they be available 

 might possibly undertake the duties, but more often 

 than not they are unavailable, the extreme tochnicil 

 nature of their work and the expensive equipment 

 which it demands tending to limit their e.'iployiuent in 

 the public service. There remains then the veterinary 

 surgeon. 



It would seem that; in the smaller colonies, where no 

 action has as yet been taken, the milk and meat supply 

 might conveniently and economically be placed under the 

 general iaspection of a properly qualified veterinary offi- 

 cer. The services, too, of this officer in connexion with the 

 importation and exportation of live stock, his advice in 

 regard to breeding and selection, and to the adminis- 

 tration of legislation jn regard to contagious diseases 

 together with general practitioner work as permitted 

 by circumstances would all seem to meet the existing 

 local requirements. The- feasibility of such an arrange- 

 ment is not lessened when we come to consider in 

 detail the duties involved. 



Although there would be some variation in differ- 

 ent places according to the provisions of legislation, in 

 general the work of milk inspection ought to come 

 under two distinct heads: (1) milk production, (2) milk 

 supply. The latter constitutes that side of the industry 

 on which most deliberate fraud takes place, but harm 

 can also accrue from milk production, that is to say, 

 originate in the cows themselves. An animal may be 

 a yielder of low quality milk, and under a stringent 

 statute the sale of the pri)duce of this cow would not 

 be permitted, though it might, of course, and always 

 is in temperate countries, mixed with the very rich 

 milk of better breeds. On the other hand, if this cow 

 giving milk of low quality happens to be tuberculous, 

 the mixing leads to the wide distribution of the microbes 

 of disease. Tuberculous cows should not be milked at 

 all. But before any action could be taken in such mat- 

 ters as these, technical skill must be available first. 

 Similar requirements exist in connexion with the supply 

 of milk. Here we have to face both adulteration, 

 and ejntamination. Adulteration can be detected by 

 simple chemical processes — nowadays, mechanically, 

 so that even the cow-keeper himself can test the 

 milk; but it cannot be loo strongly emphasized, in 

 passing, that the casual euqiloyment of the somewhat 

 abused lactometer by pri\ate individuals is valueless 

 for anything like critical work. For "ne thing, 

 it is not possible to tell definitely by means of 

 this instrument whether milk has been watered or 

 not. The specific gravity of fat is lower than that of 

 water, and if some of this fat is removed and a propor- 

 tionate amount of water added in its place, the lacto- 

 meter will still show milk of g^jod quality, apparently 

 unadulterated. It is known from unpublished investi- 

 gations that even intelligent fraud of this sort has been 

 practised in St. Kitts. 



Contamination or pollution is the worst feature of 

 a bad milk-supi)ly, and it is in this direction that the 

 \eterinary officer, chemist or m-^dicil man as a bac- 



