54^ Journal of Agricidtarc. [lo Sept., 1909. 



subscribers : — Messrs. W. ^lorgnn and Arthur Pavne, and Drs. Stanley 

 Argyle and Jeffreys Wood. The British Medical Association elected Drs. 

 Helen Sexton. W. Boyd, F. H. Cole. J. ^^^ Dunbar Hooper, and W. 

 Atkinson Wood. The following ex-officio iiHinljers were also appointed 

 to act on the Board as members: — The Minister and Director of Agricul- 

 ture, the Chairman of the Board of Public Health, and the Director of 

 the Bacteriological Department, Melbourne L'ni^•ersity. Dr. F. H. Cole 

 resigned, and Dr. Stewart P'erguson was appoiiitt'd in his place. Dr. 

 Helen Sexton was appointed hon. trt'asurer, and Dr. W. Atkinson Woo<i 

 hon. secretary. 



The assistance and co-operation of the Government were sought, and 

 the Hon. Geo. Swinburne, jMinkster of Agriculture, promised both depart- 

 mental and monetary assistance, and the Hon. E. H. Cameron, Minister 

 of Health, authorized the Department of Public Health to assist the 

 Institute. The Cabinet also kindly voted the Institute ^^50 a year for 

 two years. Lady Talbot attended the first meeting of the Board of 

 Management, at which Dr. Xorris was appointed Chairman of the Board. 

 The first work of the Board was to draw up standard conditions for the 

 production of specially clean milk, and it was announced that a hall mark 

 or certificate would be given to any dair}- comp'hing with these conditions, 

 and it was also agreed to permit such dairies to deliver their milk supply 

 in the special bottles bearing the registered mark of the Ladv Talbot Milk 

 Institute. 



So far, only one dairy farm, that of Mr. Hope, at Caulfield, has 

 complied with the conditions .specified, and it was from his farm that all 

 the milk distributed by the Board during the past summer was obtained. 

 The milk was produced by cows that had bv the tuberculin test been 

 proved to be free from tuberculosis. The milk was immediately cooled 

 to below 40 deg. F., and delivered at that temperature to the Willsmere 

 Certified Milk Depot, in Melbourne. Tenders were called for the pasteuri- 

 zation, bottling and delivery of the milk, and the ^^■illsmere Certified Milk 

 Company secured the tender. 



The difficulty of keeping e\en pasteurized milk in a sound condition for 

 twenty-four hours in our hottest weather, and the realization that want 

 of proper provision for storage of milk in the home has been a very 

 important factor in the causation of summer diarrhoea of artificially-fe'l 

 infants, determined the Board to attempt to impro\e on the systems else- 

 where in vogue by providing and maintaining small ice chests and an 

 adequate supply of ice in each house to which milk was delivered. An 

 ai)i:)eal was made in the press last Christmas, and a generous response on 

 the part of the public enabled the Board, at a cost of yd. a ^veek, to keep 

 an ice chest w-ith ice in each house to which the milk was deli\ered. The 

 ice chests were devised by the Board, and from their simplicity and inex- 

 pensiveness will, it is trustcnl, come into more general use. Blocks of ice 

 were supplied with the milk each morning by the Willsmere Company. 

 This innovation proved a gr«-at success, the milk keeping excellently exce|/t 

 during one very hot week, when the ice sui>ply was found to be inade- 

 quate, and the blocks had con.sequently to be increa.sed in size. 



In order to exi)lain the oi)jiH:ts of the Institute, Drs. Norris and A. 

 Jeffreys Wood waited by ap])nintment on the Councils of Collingwool, 

 Fitzroy and Richmond, and briefly detailed to them the steps that had 

 been taken, and the results that the Board hoped to attain by the distribu- 

 tion of a clean, safe milk among the poor of the \arious municipal districts. 

 The reception accorderl to the delegates was mr>st cordial, and the result 



