MARCH 243 



culosis ; and milk sterilised, as by placing it over the 

 fire in one saucepan, whicli stands in an outer one 

 filled with water, until it has reached a temperature of 

 some 80° C. to 90° C, i.e., 176° P., or perhaps even 

 less, is an equally innocuous food. And yet, whilst 

 we have this knowledge at our disposal, and whilst we 

 know, still further, that some 7,000 persons, mostly 

 infants, are annually killed in England and Wales by 

 that form of tuberculosis called "labis mesenterica," 

 besides some thousands more by tubercular meningitis 

 — a cause of tuberculous death which is on the increase 

 under three months of age, is undergoing no diminu- 

 tion at the next three months of life, and which ex- 

 hibits substantial increase during young adult life — 

 and yet we find people apparently intelligent, including 

 even heads of young families, who discard the remedy 

 on the mere ground of "taste." And what is still 

 more striking and reprehensible is the fact that in 

 many of our hospitals, established for the cure of dis- 

 ease, no effort is made to avoid the chance of impart- 

 ing disease, merely because effort would cause some 

 inconvenience. The avoidance of all that is septic in 

 connection with surgical operations stands in striking 

 contrast with the courting of infection in the wards 

 by the use of uncooked milk. But even the taste 

 which attaches to boiled milk, and to which infants 

 become at once habituated, may be largely avoided if 

 the milk boiled after the morning delivery be stored 

 in the cool for use in the afternoon, and if the after- 

 noon milk be similarly set aside until next morning. 



' But some allege another objection. It is maintained 

 that cooked milk is less nutritious than raw milk. I 

 admit that there is an element of truth in this. Milk is 

 a fluid having a biological character; it is living fluid, 

 and this character is destroyed by boiling or sterilisa- 



