404 MILK AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH chap. 



himself of this means of protection from impoverished cows, 

 after being supplied with full information, he should not be 

 permitted to raise this plea in court. 



It will be said that such notification of deficiency will be 

 of no use to the large milk purveyor, since he cannot trace the 

 particular herd supplying the defective sample. This is of 

 small moment, since, while it has been pointed out that a few 

 herds do occasionally yield sub-standard milk, it is never to 

 be anticipated that the mixed milk of half a dozen herds will 

 be so deficient. 



It has been contended that milk should be sold priced 

 according to quality like other articles. Theoretically this is 

 sound, but in practice the difficulties are so great, owing to 

 the natural variations in the chemical quality of milk, that it 

 is impracticable. If, however, milk standards were raised, 

 there would have to be provision made for allowing the sale 

 of the small amount of genuine milk which was below the 

 raised standard. 



An alternative plan is to deliberately define milk as a 

 fluid containing 3"0 per cent fat and 8 "5 solids-not-fat to 

 which nothing had been added. This would legalise the re- 

 duction of the quality of the milk to the legal standard. In 

 some ways it would be fairer to the community generally and 

 to the milk trade, but it would press unfairly upon the smaller 

 pm'veyors and farmers. The big milk vendors with skilled 

 staff could reduce to the legal limits to a nicety, while the 

 small man would be unable to hit the happy mean between a 

 profitable abstraction and an excessive but illegal removal. 



II. Milk derived from Healthy Cows 



This subject is of greatest importance in connection with 

 tuberculosis, and that aspect of the subject is fully discussed 

 in Chapter XVIII. There is considerable need for much 

 greater veterinary supervision in connection with cows, 

 although, as pointed out in Chapter XVIIL, veterinary 

 inspection alone will not go far in diminishing the danger 

 from tubercle-infected milk. 



