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where dirty conditions were found, the Public Health Committee removed the name of
the retailer from the Register. In 34 of the premises overalls were worn.
Enquiries as to what is done with milk left over at the close of the day, elicited
such varied replies as "kept in shop," "kept in basement," "home use," "none left,"
"sold next day," "thrown away," "kept in outbuilding," "returned to wholesaler,"
"cold store," "pasteurised," "loaded barrow kept under cover in the yard."
Comparatively few shops have any suitable storage for such milk.
The distribution of milk in bottles in the Borough is unfortunately by no means
general. Sixteen registered milk sellers have bottled milk on sale.
The advantage of buying milk in bottles is that the milk can be kept in the bottle
and used just as if it were in a jug. It is difficult to ensure that the inside of a jug is
sufficiently free from germs; the result of using jugs for milk is often avoidable home
contamination of the milk.
Daring the year as the result of the Council's interest in the hygiene of food, I
was sent reports on the subject from the United States of America and Canada From
these I learnt that in Birmingham (Alabama) and in several Canadian cities, milk is
sold by retail in bottles only. The Chief of the Division of Food and Dairy Inspection
of Birmingham (Alabama, U.S.A.), Mr. L. C. Bulmer, writing to me on the subject
says:—
"Only bottled milk is permitted to be retailed, which in itself is a big health
safeguard against contamination during distribution and domestic contamination
in the home. The fact cannot be questioned that the old slipshod way of dipping
milk in the open street, and on the door step of the customer, is not only
a disgraceful custom that should be abolished everywhere, but is also a blot on the
intelligence of any community or country that permits the practice to continue.
"Milk by its nature and composition is the most valuable single article of diet
we possess for infants or adults; its constitutes the main sustenance of all children
up to two years of age, while of all foodstuffs milk is the most difficult to protect
and keep free from serious contamination.
"One would be appalled to see a city water supply slopped about on the wide
open streets into basins, jugs and cans of questionable cleanliness, and yet milk is
far more valuable, much more easily contaminated and constitutes a great deal
better medium for the growth of pathogenic organisms than water. Because milk
is opaque, white and innocent in appearance and the dirt, filth and manurial
sediment that it often contains cannot be seen, many people are fooled and deceived
as to the true significance of the menace."
Residue from Milk Clarifiers.
As it would seem probable that pigs have been infected with tuberculosis as
a result of feeding with infected milk and slime from clarifiers, enquiry was made
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