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4
The General Health of the District.
The mild, damp January has had no injurious effect
on the death rate, which is exactly the average of the past
five years. Epidemics were absent. Chest affections less
prevalent than usual.
Dirty Milk.
A Report on this subject by the Medical Officer of
Health for Islington is now before the Public Health
Committee. It is a fact that a large portion of the milk
supply of the Metropolis derived from the country is
distinctly dirty. There are model dairy farms in which the
udder of each cow is carefully cleansed before milking and
the hands of the milkers are also washed, but in a large
number these essential precautions are either not done at
all, or in a perfunctory manner.
No small portion of town milk is drawn from the cow
at about 4 a.m. It is not every farm labourer that on a
chilly winter morning, in dark, miserable weather, will spend
a quarter of an hour cleaning himself at the pump, and then
devote five minutes extra to each cow, the more especially
as trains have to be caught and there may be but a scanty
margin of time to allow for various contingencies. The
Dairies and Milkshops Order enforces general cleanliness
in dairies and places where cows are kept, but it seems to
be enforced by only a few Local Authorities. In any case
it is a difficult matter to enforce cleanliness by Act of
Parliament. In the writer's opinion the most practical
way to deal with the question would be to fix, after
due enquiry, a standard for the amount of dirt in milk, the
standard, of course, based on clean commercial milk. It is
an absolute impossibility to obtain milk quite free from dust
or dirt, but it is not difficult to put into circulation milk
which has a very small quantity of impurities derived from
the dust of the cowshed and the hair and skin of the animal.