London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of London 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London, City of ]
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29
CONTAMINATED MILK.
The investigation into the character of the milk arriving in London for
delivery to dealers in the City, which was commenced in 1902, and repeated
in the years 1904, 1905 and 1906, was continued during 1907.
Notwithstanding the strong feeling that has been aroused amongst all
classes with regard to the importance of milk supplies being delivered under
such conditions as to ensure freedom from contamination, the result of the
several investigations of the milk supply of the City shows, that unless it is
made obligatory upon farmers and others sending milk to town to take
reasonable precautionary measures for ensuring purity, little or no improvement
in this direction is likely to take place.
The following are the results of the analysis of the series referred to:—
| 1904. | 1905. | 1906. | 1907 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | |
| Fairly clean and pure | 48.7 | 68.2 | 80 | 54.2 |
| Unclean | 43.6 | 22.7 | 12 | 37.5 |
| Tuberculous | 7.7 | 9.1 | 8 | 8.3 |
With regard to tuberculous milk found in the last series, it will be seen
there has been little variation in the percentage found.
As in former years, in each case where the milk was found to be tuberculous,
action was taken to ascertain if there were any cows suffering from that
disease in the herd from which the milk was derived, and in each instance the
bacteriological result was confirmed.
These results not only demonstrate the value of bacteriology as a medium
for determining the presence or otherwise of disease in milk, but also show that
practically no precautions are taken by either farmers or wholesale dealers in
London to ensure that the milk they are responsible for is not a vehicle for
the conveyance of tuberculosis.
They further show that while the best method of dealing with the control
of milk is at its actual source, viz., the farm, there is no real difficulty in
getting this effectually carried out on the spot by the Local Authority, as in
each of the milks reported against above, upon bringing the facts to the notice
of the local medical officer of health, steps were at once taken to improve the
sanitary conditions prevailing on the farm in question.
This indicates that there is no necessity for any central authority wasting
time and money in inspecting farms in the country where their intrusion
would be resented, and when the necessary supervision of any required work
would be difficult if not impossible.