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57
In the circular letter addressed by the Lambeth Borough Council to other sanitary authorities,
reference was made to the need of directing the attention of railway companies " to the need of more
sanitary means of transit and storage of milk," The Islington Borough Council adopted resolutions
that the County Council should obtain powers (a) to prevent the introduction into London of unwholesome
milk, and for that purpose, to take samples outside London, (b) to enable the County Council
outside London and the sanitary authorities in London to take immediate action when serious infectious
disease is suspected, subject to proper compensation, and (c) to enable the county and metropolitan
borough councils to require from purveyors of milk all necessary information. These resolutions were
communicated to other sanitary authorities. During the year enquiry was made by the Corporation
of the City of London as to the condition of milk supplied within the City, and thirty.nine samples of milk
were sent to Dr. Klein for bacteriological examination. The results of Dr. Klein's examination were
that nineteen were found clean and pure, in three the bacillus tuberculosis was found, in seven the
staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, and in ten the bacillus enteritidis Gaertner were found. Writing of
this last microbe, Dr. Klein says : " This splenic microbe being the real bacillus enteritidis Gaertner,
the matter assumes a serious aspect, for this reason, viz., the bacillus gaertner is capable, when introduced
in sufficient numbers by the digestive organs, of causing acute gastro-enteritis, and further, if
this microbe be present initially in however small numbers in milk during the warm weather, or if kept
for some time in a warm place, it would soon multiply—milk being a good soil for such multiplication—
and the milk remaining unaltered to the eye, its consumption might cause serious intestinal disorders.
How this microbe got into the milk cannot be said, but since the bacillus Gaertner, according to our
present knowledge, seems to be generally derived from the bovine animal, it is probably also in our cases
directly or indirectly referable to this animal, it certainly could not have got into the milk in transit.
Whether directly from the udder of the cow, or with impurities in the cowsheds, or originally from ailing
animals, must for the present remain unexplained." Dr. Collingridge gives the results of the inspection
by the local medical officer of health and a veterinary surgeon of the farms from which these ten
samples of milk were derived. Various insanitary conditions were found on some of these farms, and
on one farm a cow with indurated udder, on another a cow " affected with catarrhal mastitis in one
quarter, associated with an erythemal eruption of the skin of the udder."
In a few reports reference is made to the question of sanitary authorities providing milk depots
for the supply of infants with milk specially adapted to their age. In Battersea a milk depot has thus
existed since 1902 ; in Finsbury a depot has been provided by philanthropic agency, and the Lambeth
Borough Council decided in 1904 to establish a depot.