View report page

49
Milk comes into a different category to meat, for it is impossible
by mere inspection to ascertain if milk contains the
germs, or products of the germs, of Tuberculosis. Tubercle bacilli
present in milk are, with few exceptions, derived from the cow,
an animal very susceptible to the disease. Such milk is only
virulent when the cows udder is the seat of the Tuberculous
disease, but then its virulence can only be described as extraordinary.
It should also be remembered that udder disease is not
peculiar to advanced tuberculosis, but may occur in mild forms
of the disease, and is a condition very rapidly developed in the
cow. The danger from using such milk naturally occurs in persons
who drink it uncooked and as their principal food, namely, young
children. All danger is avoided by boiling (212°F.) or pasteurizing
(185° F.) the milk
A somewhat serious proportion of the milk of this and other
countries is infected with Tubercle, and there can be little doubt
that by means of this channel the disease is spread While the
death-rate from Phthisis is declining in England it should not be
forgotten that the death-rate from Consumption of the Bowels
(Tabes Mesenterica) is remaining stationary, and in some places
appears to be increasing. Tabes Mesenterica chiefly attacks infants and
young children, and it is held to be largely due to drinking uncooked
milk from tuberculous cows. In Clerkenwell, during 1900, there
were 48 deaths of children under 5 years attributed to "other
forms of tuberculosis" (which mainly consists of consumptive
bowels), and there were 82 children under 5 years of age certified
as having died from "Debility." In my mind there is very little
doubt that many of these deaths from "debility" were also due
to consumptive bowels.
Here, then, the matter is in a nutshell. We have in Finsbury,
say, 300 deaths from Phthisis every year (largely caused by
dried infective sputum), and the preventive measures already discussed
are being carried out. In addition to this we have, say,
150 deaths of children from tuberculous diseases partly caused
by infective dust, partly by tuberculous milk. Most of such milk
comes in from the country, and from experiments by Dr. Klein for
the London County Council in 1900, it appears that out of 97 samples,
d