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115
Tuberculous Nursery Milk.—In July I reported to the Public Health Committee
as follows:—
In the course of taking samples of nursery milk for chemical and
bacteriological examination, in accordance with the instructions of the Council,
from cowsheds, dairies, and milkshops, Dr. Eyre, the Bacteriologist, reported
that two samples were so peculiar that he required repeats. Inspector Auger
was instructed to repeat these two samples, which were drawn direct from two
cows in the same stall in the same cowshed. Upon these two samples Dr.
Eyre wrote that one of them (A 48, repeat 56) contained what appeared most
probably to be tubercle bacilli, and that the other (A 47, repeat 55) was also
suspicious, and that both of them contained large quantities of pus; in fact,
in both the first and second samples of A 48 the tilth consisted entirely of pus
cells, and in the first sample of A 47 the filth consisted entirely of pus cells and
in the seeond of a very large number of pus cells. I had a personal interview
with Dr. Eyre, and we came to the conclusion that, apart from the question of
tubercle, the danger of supplying so large a quantity of pus cells in nursery milk
was so great that its supply should be prohibited. With regard to tubercle,
Dr. Eyre requested to be allowed to inoculate the milk in order to be perfectly
sure that the acid fast bacilli which he had found in the milks drawn direct
from the cow were tubercle bacilli. To this course I assented, and at the same
time I asked him to furnish me at once with the certificates of the results of his
examinations. In the meantime I proceeded to Messrs. Ricketts, the Council's
Solicitors, in order to ascertain the course that should be adopted by the
Officers of the Borough Council, and they advised that when the disease was
finally found to be tuberculosis of the udder, the consent of the owner should
be obtained to the slaughter of the cows, the rest of Mr. Ricketts' letter
referring to the method of procedure that it might be possible to adopt under
certain circumstances in prosecuting. I was convinced that the cowkeeper
was not aware of the condition of things, and I felt that it was imperative that
the milk should be stopped from distribution forthwith. In perusing the
Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops Order of 1899,1 found that Article 2 includes,
in the case of a cow, such disease of the udder as shall be certified by a
veterinary surgeon to be tubercular, and that Article 15 of the Order of
1885 provides that if at any time such disease exists amongst the cattle in a
cowshed, the milk of a diseased cow therein shall not be mixed with other milk
and shall not be sold or used for human food. With the consent of the Chairman
of your Committee, I therefore forthwith called upon Prof. MacQueen, of the
Royal Veterinary College, and, accompanied by Inspector Auger, we
proceeded to the cowshed and Prof. MacQueen examined the cows. He was
definitely of opinion that the cow A 48, repeat 56, was affected in the udder,
but he was doubtful with regard to the cow A 47, repeat 55, but that as both
milks contained a large quantity of pus they were unfit for human consumption.
I therefore asked the owner of the cows, in accordance with the
Articles of the Orders above-mentioned, not to mix the milk with other milk
and not to sell or use the milk for human food.
It was then that I realised how impracticable it was to carry out the Orders
in this respect. It was not practicable to leave an Inspector in the shed night
and day to see that the milk of these cows was not mixed with other milk,
and was not sold or used for human food. There was no provision for
removing and quarantining the cows, and if the milk were seized oil each