Science in Public Affairs 



the Committee tell us that it is next to impossible 

 for the poor to obtain this article either in town 

 or country. The cows are not kept clean in the 

 farms, proper precautions are not taken for milk- 

 ing them into clean pails, and there is no security 

 against diseased cows. Then the milk has to pass 

 through many hands ; it gets full of dirt ; it is 

 preserved with successive doses of boracic acid ; 

 and, of course, is not seldom robbed of part of its 

 cream or adulterated with water. Even when it 

 reaches the home it will probably be further con- 

 taminated through the consumer's ignorance, and 

 will perhaps be finally sucked by a child through a 

 long india-rubber tube which cannot be kept clean. 

 As before, the remedy rests with the Local 

 Authorities, who have ample powers to register 

 and inspect cowsheds, dairies, &c., and the Local 

 Government Board, which can make overriding 

 orders. These powers are. in many districts not 

 used. Then for fighting the ignorance of mothers 

 we must fall back on the school and continuation 

 classes and other means of social education already 

 referred to. At Battersea, Liverpool, and other 

 places the Local Authorities have undertaken the 

 function of supplying sterilised milk at low prices ; 

 but there are serious objections to a municipality 

 acting at the same time as a milk-trader and a 

 censor of other milk-traders ; and expert opinion is 

 divided as to the value of sterilisation, some doctors 

 holding that the process reduces to a minimum the 

 nutritive value of the milk. The Committee could 

 not recommend municipal selling nor (till further 



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