PRINCIPLES OF REFORM 543 



Sufnmary of Recommendations. 



For the sake of convenience we may broadly summarise our 

 recommendations for the control of the milk supply very briefly as 

 follows : — 



1. Legislation having for its object the registration and regula- 

 tion of milk-sellers and dairj'men should be enforced by law and 

 not left to be adopted or not by the Local Authorities. In the first 

 place, registration should be granted only to suitable premises and 

 management ; in the second place, healthy milch herds, clean 

 dairying, sufficient water supply, etc., should be looked upon not 

 as luxuries, but as essential to a pure milk supply. Legislation 

 now on the statute book requires systematising and enforcing 

 uniformly throughout the country. Milk contractors should be 

 included under the same restrictions as milk sellers. There 

 are also a number of minor alterations in legislation required, 

 particularly in respect to the expeditious stamping out of milk- 

 borne epidemics. The one great aim of all such legislation should 

 be to obtain such a regular, uniform, and systematic control of 

 the milk supply that outbreaks of disease are prevented from 

 occurring, and a pure milk supply is ensured. 



2. The sampling of milk under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 

 should be carried out not only at the milk-shop but when the milk 

 is at the farm, whilst in transit, before it reaches the contractor, and 

 between the contractor and vendor. Bacteriological examinations 

 should also be made periodically, though the time has probably not 

 yet come for fixing a minimum standard of the number of organisms 

 permissible, or for prosecution if that standard be passed. The 

 addition of preservatives should be restricted, if prohibition is 

 found to be impracticable. 



3. The railway companies should provide special vans and 

 refrigerators, and also milk-sheds at stations having a large milk 

 traffic Quick transit and sealed churns are also desiderata, at all 

 events on some lines and in some districts. 



4. Education of public opinion as to the importance of a pure 

 milk supply, and the practicability of obtaining it by private and 

 trade enterprise on public demand, and the training of girls in 

 domestic hygiene, should be looked upon as an essential require- 

 ment in any radical reform of the milk supply. Cleanliness in 

 everj'thing that concerns milk at the farm, in transit, and in the 

 home, is the thing most needed. 



