100 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



the perishing, superbly nutrient liquid receives its 

 repeated sowings of germinal and non-germinal dirt 

 . . . and this in good dairies. What must it be 

 where the cows are never groomed and the udders are 

 never washed, where the byres are never even approxi- 

 mately cleaned, where ventilators are never opened, 

 where the pigs are a few feet away, where cobwebs are 

 ancient and heavy, where hands are only by accident 

 washed, where heads are only occasionally cleaned, 

 where spittings are not infrequent, where the milker 

 may be a chance comer from some filthy place, where, 

 in a word, the various dirts of the civilized human are 

 at every hand reenforced by the inevitable dirts of the 

 domesticated cow?" " 



The British Medical Journal employed a com- 

 missioner to investigate the conditions under which 

 the milk supply of a number of the large British 

 cities is produced, and the following is quoted from 

 the report of one dairy : — 



"The operation of milking was in full swing, three 

 dirty-looking boys being hidden away behind their 

 respective cows. ... I looked about for pails of 

 water, soap, towels, or anything which might give 

 the lie to the filthy state of the cows' udders and 

 the milkers' hands, but in vain. The clothes which 

 the boys wore were equally dirty, and the stalls . . . 

 were several inches deep in manure and foul-smelling 

 straw. . . . The hind quarters of the cows were 



