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104
agreeable to the English palate as raw milk appears to be to
the palate of other Europeans, and certain aboriginal races.
One would think that something might be done to explain and
counteract the danger involved in the use of raw milk, through
the agency of elementary and other schools. In a few years,
should the practice of boiling milk be adopted, it is quite
likely that taste for boiled milk would become as general as
the prejudice is now against it: prejudice due, no doubt, to
what is considered to be the more agreeable flavour of the
raw article.
The question here dealt with received attention from the
Sanitary Committee, whose report thereon was adopted by
your Vestry. The Committee, it was stated, were :—
" Impressed with the futility of any efforts having for their object the
suppression of tuberculosis by the inspection of meat, whilst no arrangements
are in operation for the supervision of milk, and of the cows
from which it is taken ; for it may fairly be assumed that milch cows,
which are the older animals, are more likely to be infected with
tuberculosis than are the younger cattle sent to London to be
slaughtered, and that children, who are the chief consumers of milk,
are more susceptible to disease germs than are adults, the consumers
of meat."
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to observe that the great bulk of
milk consumed in London is now obtained from the country,
a fact which emphasizes the necessity for fresh powers of
supervision of rural dairies. Time was, within my official
experience, when, with a population tens of thousands less than
at present, some 500 cows were kept in 28 sheds in this parish,
whilst now the sheds are only four in number and the cows
therein do not exceed a score. Altogether, the subject is one
which yields to none other in practical importance in its bearings
upon the health and welfare of the community.