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36
The heaviest item of expenditure is, of course, the milk, but an
unduly heavy item is carriage from the farm to the depot, and this
transit is also partly responsible for the large amount expended on
bottles, breakages being somewhat more than was anticipated. On the
whole, however, and compared with other English milk depots, the
expenditure has not been excessive nor does it proportionately exceed
the twelve-months estimate of £530. Still there falls a charge upon the
rates of £438 10s. 3d., and that is, of course, a serious item. Nor is it
practicable to suggest, for the same scheme, a much smaller loss. It
might be possible to work some other scheme at a less cost, but even
so, there is the difficulty of income, the payments of the mothers being
insufficient and too irregular to ensure a settled and satisfactory revenue.
It is much to be regretted that an enterprise of this kind cannot,
seemingly, be made self-supporting. Of its medical benefit, and of its
far-reaching value, both in the saving of life and in securing and
maintaining a better standard of infant management—after all a thing
of national importance—there can be no doubt.
3. The use of Modified Dried Milk.— In connection with this
subject I must also place on record an experiment in the use of
Dried Milk, which has been carried on in Finsbury, at first under
the observation of Dr. Frances Harper. Subsequently, after her
departure from the district, the matter came under my observation,
although of course the Borough Council was in no way responsible
for the undertaking.
By the good offices of Messrs. J. Nathan & Co , a number of children
(53 in all) who could not obtain the depot milk, and who could not
be fed on breast milk, have been fed on modified " Dried Milk,"
and we have thus had the opportunity of watching an experiment
which has been extremely interesting, especially in comparing depot
milk fed children and children fed on Modified Dried Milk. This
substance is the dried essence of whole milk, suitably modified, and
when reconstituted forms a liquid milk, having much the same
constituent parts as ordinary modified miik.* It has, of course, the
immense advantage that in powder form it can be kept for long
* I understand that this Dried Milk is now placed on the market under
the name "GLAXO."