MILK SUPPLY : .DISCUSSION 215 



He got the Secretary of the Commission to communicate 

 with the twelve members, and the committee left their 

 offices and their patients and went twelve miles the next day 

 to meet the dairy physician and inspect the man who they 

 were told was suffering from a slight fever. They found 

 fever, but the man was only a little out of sorts and wanted 

 to go back to work the next day. The next morning the 

 dairy physician called upon the man and found spots upon 

 his chest. He thereupon again telephoned to him (Dr. 

 Coit), and the following day the committee again went to 

 the dairy and made a diagnosis of scarlet fever in the man, 

 who was a young married Pole. The committee got 

 together and spent an hour or two with reference to their 

 duty to the 4,000 families to whom this certified milk was 

 to be delivered, and they asked the dairyman to come, and 

 he did so. That, he thought, was an evidence of the altruistic 

 spirit which was to be found in some dairymen, and that 

 man was at the Conference that morning. He said, 

 " Doctors, I will throw these 6,500 quarts upon the ground 

 if you say so, and I will let a big dealer supply my 4,000 

 customers." They said, " No, we will cook your milk for 

 a few days during the period of incubation for scarlet fever," 

 and they required him to employ a sanitarian from New 

 York, which cost him 100 to supervise that milk for a 

 period of twenty days. The result was that the people 

 stood loyally by him, and only twelve out of 4,000 

 customers discontinued to purchase that milk. Another 

 result was that they succeeded in more firmly establishing 

 their system, because the medical profession had confidence 

 in their principles. They refused any reward for their work, 

 and as doctors they were continuing that work in the United 

 States for the good of the people. He was convinced that 

 the same system was necessary in England, and the people 

 of England deserved it just as much as they did in America. 

 Dr. C. O. LENANE (Battersea) said that as a medical 

 officer of health of a London borough he had been very 

 much interested in the discussion as his authority had taken 

 very considerable interest in the question. In listening to 

 the papers which had been read that morning he had been 

 particularly struck with the one which had been read by 

 Professor Beattie. It was a well-known fact that in London, 

 where the question of the milk supply was such a very 

 urgent one, the control of the supply was very unsatisfac- 

 tory. That arose from the fact that although the sanitary 

 authorities in London were verv keen in looking after their 

 milk supply, they had practically little control of it until it 

 came into their particular district. In the district of London 



