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110
figures that the milk sold in the City of London or Holborn is inferior
to milk sold in Finsbury. Obviously a very large number of
examinations would be necessary to form any opinion upon the
comparative condition of the milk of different districts, and other
conditions would also have to be considered. The table, about the
correctness of which there can be no doubt, must be taken for what
it represents, namely, the bacterial content of nine milks, purchased
by chance and examined at the same time, from nine London milk
shops.
Without laying undue emphasis upon these results there are three
simple deductions which may, I think, be safely drawn from them.
First, Finsbury milk, as sold, contains a very large number of
bacteria, and certainly a number much above any standard of
suitability. Secondly, a considerable number of the contained
bacteria are of the liquefying or putrefactive species (varying from
one to three per cent.). Thirdly, in certain poor shops, of which we
possess particulars, the numbers of bacteria are extremely low or the
liquefying species are absent. The last figures recorded in the table
(milkshop E) afford an excellent illustration of such shops. The
cause of this apparently healthy state of the milk is the liberal addition
of preservatives. In such cases the findings of bacteriology must
be taken in conjunction with the results of chemical examination.
There can be little doubt that much of the inferior milk sold in
Finsbury, is bolstered up by the addition of preservatives, which are
added to disguise its true character.
The milks were not tested for the presence of disease-producing
bacteria. The organisms present in the numbers recorded above
were chiefly of two kinds : (1) the ordinary lactic acid bacteria of
milk, which bring about the souring of milk; (2) common,
putrefactive bacteria, many of which liquefy gelatine, and all of
which probably gain entrance to the milk from dust and dirt.*
The milk from milkshop E was exceptionally bad, and contained
a number of gas-producing and milk-coagulating organisms. In
* The species isolated included Bacillus liquefaciens, B. f.uorescens liquefaciens,
Staphylococcus pyogenes albus, Bacillus coli communis, several Streptococci,
Sarcinœ, etc.