London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1930
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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59
As the various sample collecting outfits were incapable of efficiently stirring the milk and
unable to collect a sample from a greater depth than 6 inches from the surface, it became obviously
desirable to evolve a method of collecting a sample which would be indicative of the milk as a whole.
Two possible methods presented themselves, firstly, to sterilise and use the ordinary type of mixing
plunger, or secondly, to design some new sampling apparatus.
The ordinary type of plunger is large and unwieldy and to sterilise it satisfactorily would
not be easy ; moreover, it would be difficult to convey it from place to place. The alternative
method suggested by Mr. H. W. Walters, was to lower perpendicularly into the churn a glass tube
of wider bore, gouging out equal quantities of milk from every level as the tube descended. The
tube referred to in the table as Walters' tube was subsequently modified by Dr. Keith. To
complete the experiments, samples were also taken from the milk after it had been plunged with
the ordinary type of mixing plunger (previously sterilised). During the course of these experiments,
a series of samples were taken over a period of three months.
The results obtained during the course of the investigation are shown in the following tables :—
| Churn No. | Sample taken from bottom of churn. | Sample taken from 6 in. up the churn. | Sample taken from 9 in. up the churn. | Sample taken from 12 in. up the churn. | Sample taken from 18 in. up the churn. | Composite sample taken with Walters' tube. | Sample taken after mixing milk with sterilised plunger. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11,000 | 14,000 | — | 10,000 | 26,000* | — | — |
| 180,000 | 213,000 | — | 356,000 | 2,357,000 | — | — | |
| 3 | 4,600 | 16,200 | — | 21,900 | 65,000 | — | — |
| 4 | 1,800 | — | 4,100 | — | 19,900 | 6,500 | — |
| 5 | 11,100 | — | 40,000 | — | 62,000 | 50,000 | — |
| 6 | 3,200 | — | 12,200 | — | 53,000* | 16,400* | 14,100* |
| 7 | 4,000 | — | 6,000 | — | 37,000* | 45,000* | 12,000* |
| Notes— * B. Coli present in l-10th ccm. | |||||||
| Churn No. | Sample taken from bottom of churn. | Sample taken from 6 in. up the churn. | Sample taken from 9 in. up the churn. | Sample taken from 18 in. up the churn. | Composite sample taken with Walters' tube | Sample taken after mixing milk with sterilised plunger. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0.82% | _ | 1.74% | 8.60% | 3.52% | — |
| 7 | 1.05% | — | 2.10% | 6.70% | 3.65% | 3.45% |
Whilst it is not suggested that these experiments are sufficient to justify any definite
conclusions, they do form a basis for further experiment because they indicate that :—
(1) Samples of bulk milk collected by the recognised methods at present used are
unreliable.
(2) The bacterial content is not evenly distributed throughout the bulk of milk
but increases with the height from the bottom of the churn.
London County Council (General Powers) Acts, 1902, 1908 and 1928. Control of Ice Cream.—
The ice cream trade in the past has been mainly regulated under the London County Council
(General Powers) Act, 1902, which makes it an offence to store ice cream in a sleeping room or in
any shed or room in which there is an inlet to a drain. This Act also requires vendors to notify the
occurrence of infectious disease amongst their employees or persons living on their premises, and
provides further that every itinerant vendor shall exhibit on his barrow the name and address
of the person from whom the ice cream has been obtained. The London County Council (General
Powers) Act, 1908, lays down certain sanitary requirements for all premises used for the preparation
or the sale of food, and this Act has been used for controlling ice cream shops.