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38
The churns averaged six and a half barn gallons, a barn gallon being double
an imperial gallon, this represents 34,385 imperial gallons. In April, 1892, Mr. R.
Henry Rew, in relating before the Royal Statistical Society, an inquiry into the
statistics of the production and consumption of milk and milk products of Great
Britain," estimated the total daily milk supply of London in 1890 as 133,000
gallons. Messrs. Wynter Blyth and Alfred Spencer in the Transactions of the
Society of Medical Officers of Health, 1885-6, estimated the mean daily supply in
1884 as 110,000 gallons, of which over three-fourths arrived by rail. So that
somewhere between one-third and one-fourth of the daily milk supply of London
arrives through railway stations and depots in St. Pancras.
The churns are consigned to a considerable number of consignees the large
majority of whom occupy premises outside St. Pancras. So that not only is the
protection of the milk supply of St. Pancras concerned in the condition of the
station deliveries but also that of a large part of the metropolis.
Nevertheless, as the effect of many suggestions, it was decided in the first
quarter of the year to take samples of milk from the churns in transit at the
Railway Stations. Inspector Osborne was specially detailed for this work and was
furnished with a stirer inside a walking stick, for the purpose of mixing the milk
in order to obtain an average sample from a churn One hundred samples were
taken and five prosecutions were the result The quality of the milk varies greatly
in different churns from the same producer, hence it is necessary to sample every
churn of a consignor.
In the ordinary course of events when the wholesale milk-dealer discovers
that he is receiving milk below the standard he complains to the Sanitary Authority
that a certain producer is sending adulterated milk to Town. Last year some seven
complaints of suspected adulteration were received from resident milk-dealers In
the absence of a voluntary complaint it is extremely difficult for a Sanitary Authority's
Officer to take samples at railway stations of milk in transit and to obtain a conviction
for adulteration, in order to keep a check upon the rural producer or consignor, without
the co-operation of the wholesale dealer or consignee. In the first place, passive
obstruction may block the way. Railway servants will not willingly assist in the
matter unless remunerated for the extra labour involved, and if better paid by the
milk-dealers to obstruct will doubtless make it more convenient to do so. The
position of an Inspector hunting for a particular consignment of milk in a vanfull,
and his still more hopeless position when it is ultimately found deposited in an
inaccessible place requiring the shifting of a dozen or two other churns, can easily
be conceived.
There may also be collusion between the consignor and consignee either from
common interests or friendships, in which case the work of the Inspector would
be of the detective type. The consignee's evidence is absolutly necessary to obtain
a conviction for adulteration in order to prove the contract to deliver pure milk,
and practically, the consignee is master of the situation. He protects himself
against the producer by requiring a warranty and uses the Sanitary Authority to
enforce it, on the other hand he evades giving a guarantee himself to the small
retailers.
If the consumer (i.e., the public), is to be protected from the adulteration, not
only of the retailer, but of others through whose hands the milk passes, it would
appear only consistent that the next check should be upon the wholesaler, and upon
the producer last. It is of little value to control the producer and to let the whole
sale dealer, who has the subsequent manipulation of immense quantities of milk,
to go free.