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59
one of the recommendations of the Departmental Committee, viz., that
no chemical antiseptics shoidd be permitted in milk or any other food
used for infants and invalids, were enforced by law. The harmful
nature oE these agents has been abundantly testified to, and the small
amount of negative evidence which is often adduced in Courts of Law
in support of the view of their harmlessness is quite inadequate to shake
the position of those who base their case upon positive evidence. Milk is
an article of food consumed by infants of only a few weeks old, and it
is certain that the smallest quantities of chemical antiseptics must
prove injurious in these cases. The plea that it is better for an infant
to consume such doctored milk, than milk which would otherwise have
soured is based on the false assumption that the latter eventuality is
inevitable. The answer is that with the cleanly collection of milk, and
subsequent refrigeration and cleanly storage, it is found easily practicable
to insure that the milk will keep sweet sufficiently long to enable it to
be sent long distances by rail and subsequently distributed and used by
the purchasers. What can be done in other countries, where the
addition of chemical antiseptics to milk is a jDenal offence at any time
of the year, can be done in Great Britain. Chemical antiseptics are
generally a cloak for covering the sale of dirty milk.