Parliamentary Publications. 409 



prescribed for invalids and convalescents, it is of the utmost 

 importance that it should not be the vehicle of any un- 

 suspected agent. While it is possible that milk containing 

 boracic acid in sufficient quantity to act as a preservative (say 

 30 grains to the gallon}, might be consumed to the amount 

 of four or five pints a day without harmful results by most 

 healthy children or adults, there is evidence pointing to an 

 injurious effect of boracised milk upon the^health of very 

 young children. Moreover, there exists at present no 

 guarantee against the addition of excessive amounts ot 

 preservative to milk. Cases were quoted to the Committee in 

 which the proportion ranged from 42 to 126 grains per 

 gallon, and one case was instanced of a sample containing na 

 less than 80 g*rains to the pint. 



In the opinion of the Committee such random use of any 

 drug in a food calls for regulation. At present milk may be 

 subjected to several successive treatments with preservative 

 before it reaches the consumer. The farmer or producer 

 sometimes applies it, so does the wholesale purveyor, 

 so does the retail dealer ; lastly, the domestic use of pre- 

 servatives is increasing, and has become very general, 

 and hence the milk may receive a fourth dose before 

 it reaches the unsuspecting consumer. A further objection 

 raised in the Report to the use of preservatives in the milk 

 traffic is that they may be relied on to protect those en- 

 gaged therein against the immediate results of neglect of 

 scrupulous cleanliness. Under the influence of the preser- 

 vatives milk may be exposed without sensible injury to 

 conditions which otherwise would render it unsaleable. It 

 may remain sweet to taste and smell, and yet have incorporated 

 disease-germs of various kinds, whereof the activity may be 

 suspended for a time by the action of the preservative, but 

 may be resumed before the milk is digested. 



It was put before the Committee that it is not possible to 

 supply large towns, especially London, with new milk with- 

 out the aid of preservatives ; but they state that they have 

 received abundant evidence to prove that this is no more than 

 a matter of organisation and system, and that while no doubt 

 the prohibition of preservatives in milk offered for sale would 



