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This table shows that although the percentage of unclean samples has fallen
from 33.3 to 25.0, the samples found to contain the bacillus of tuberculosis
have increased from 4.7 to 6.25, which figure, however, is lower than the
average obtained in the six series.
The improvements in the results with regard to dirt is doubtless accounted
for by the increased use by dairymen and farmers of a common-sense type of
churn.
For many years I have been urging upon milk traders the impossibility of
safeguarding their milk from ingress of air-borne and other impurities during
transit if they continued to use the old-fashioned churn.
Even though the milk leaves the farm perfectly clean and free from
impurities, the journey in a receptacle that offers no obstacle whatever to the
entrance of dirt and other extraneous matter, is practically certain to prejudicially
affect its purity.
Then again, there is another factor that largely mitigates against the efforts
of all concerned in this question—the practice, still largely in vogue, of
returning the churns to farmers without in any way scalding or cleansing
them. Many of the larger dairymen in London quite recognise the futility of
trusting this important matter to the farmer, and have established an elaborate
system of cleansing their churns, but there are many to whom the necessity of
so simple a precaution does not appear to suggest itself.
In accordance with the arrangement entered into with the Medical Officer of
the London County Council, under the provisions of Section 38 of the London
County Council (General Powers) Act, 1907, the names and addresses of the
farmers from whom these samples of tuberculous milk were obtained (Nos. 24,26
and 32) were sent to the Medical Officer of the London County Council, and I
am informed that tuberculous cows were found on the farms in two cases (Nos.
26 and 32), and the owners of both farms undertook not to send milk from
these cows to London. The attention of the local authority for the district in
which these farms were situated was directed to the cows in question.
*It will be noticed that the 100% is made up of clean and unclean only in the years 1909 and 1910.
The sample in which tubercle was found also contained dirt.