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70
the Borough, but in one instance only (out of 31 samples)
were the contents found to be non-sterile.
7. Samples of milk distributed for consumption throughout the
Borough were, from time to time, taken and examined
bacteriologically. They were found to contain germs
ranging in numbers from 20,000 (lowest) to 5,200,000
(highest) per cubic centimetre, obtained after cultivation
on nutrient plates, No pathological germs were found
e.g., diphtheria, typhoid or "enteric" fever, or tubeiculosis.
The need for the establishing and maintaining of bacteriological
laboratories in large towns is now acknowledged, and the success of
the Lambeth Bacteriological Laboratory is due to its local and central
position and the fact that it is provided and maintained for the sole
use of the Borough, thereby securing quickness of results for local
practitioners, and that, too, at a mimimum of cost. Certain cases of
infectious disease are so mild that clinical symptoms are, apparently,
absent. These are the cases in which bacteriology comes to the help
of diagnosis, but simply as an aid to diagnosis, and, in this connection,
it must be remembered that, per contra, many thousands of " throat "
patients in the case of suspected diphtheria are shown bacteriologically
to be not suffering "from diphtheria. Similar remarks apply in the
cases of patients suspected to be suffering from tuberculosis or from
other doubtful infectious diseases, as the case may be Such results
are invaluable, and save, at the same time, many notification fees to
the Local Authority.
Without the Lambeth medical practitioners making full use of the
local Laboratory, its success would not have been so marked; indeed,
the unexpectedly large extent to which the Lambeth Laboratory has
been used has shown the superiority, in practice, of a local institution
for the Borough (Lambeth Borough Council) as compared with a
central institution for the whole of London (London County Council),
the results being obtained, in the former case, more quickly and at a
cheaper rate than would have been obtained in the latter case. These
are facts that cannot be disputed. It has, however, always been realised
by the Medical Officer of Health, and the opinion was stated very
definitely in 1898. and has been repeated since, that, in the event of
the Lambeth Bacteriological Laboratory proving a great success,
which it has done, a specially trained bacteriological assistant would,
sooner or later, be required to assist the Medical Officer of Health in
the practical work. This has now proved to have become necessary
at the present time.