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practice for some of the milk companies to pasteurise the milk 

 prior to delivery. This is a matter of serious moment. Milk is a 

 natural article and the business of the milk-vendor is to supply it 

 in its pure and natural condition. 



The most pernicious of all practices in connection with milk 

 is the use of " preservatives ". The action of these substances on 

 the infant is of the most serious character. At the very beginning 

 of gastric digestion processes essential to the health of the infant 

 are directly interfered with. In consequene af this perversion the 

 chemical changes attending digestion in the intestine are inter- 

 fered with and atrophic enteritis develops. In the case of an infant 

 suffering from the effects of preservatives in the milk it had con- 

 sumed, the full extent of the injuries can scarecely be appreciated 

 until the cause has been removed. It is not till then that the 

 harm done is fully realised, the digestion being so injured that 

 the most delicate adjustments of the diet are required, and it is 

 frequently several months before the infant fully recovers. 



In the worst cases, when the infant has received considerable 

 amounts of preservatives, such as boric acid, over a considerable 

 period, the atrophy of the digestive glands may be quite incurable 

 and death ensues after lingering illness characterised by much 

 pain and suffering ". 



" Great harm has been done by the persistent advocacy of 

 " boiled " milk. The boiling of milk is quite ineffectual as a means 

 of protection. The advocacy of the practice has done more than 

 anything else to mislead the public and to encourage all sorts of 

 wild expedients which leave the essential problems untouched. 

 There is only one way in which clean milk can be obtained, 

 namely be ensuring cleanliness and sanitation from its production 

 to its delivery and giving special attention to the peculiar hygienic 

 precautions indicated by the peculiar qualities and properties 

 of milk ". 



J. PERCIVAL, Milk and Tuberculosis. Agricultural Bacteriology. 

 London, 1910, p. 321. 



" One of the great scourges of the human race is tuberculosis. 

 The number of deaths per annum in the British Islands due to 

 various forms of the disease is over 60 ooo and probably more than 

 ten times this number suffer from it. 



The disease is also found extensively distributed among domestic 



