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20
In only 10 shops in the district is there a refrigerator installed
in the shop and used to store milk in warm weather. In the other
shops, the milk is kept on the counter. Some use muslin, others
do nothing. It is for the Committee to decide what they consider
to be all practicable precautions. The question will not arise until
next summer.
We have made enquiries in other districts, and I may say
that the practice varies very greatly in different districts. In most
districts no specified method is prescribed, but in one district the
installation of refrigerators in the shops is being asked for.
Periodically the question of milk comes up for debate and
discussion, and, incidentally, it might be mentioned that this is not
surprising. It should be remembered that milk is an important
article of food ; to infants it is the sole food, and to many young
children it is the principal food, and should loom more in the
dietary of young persons. It is almost universally admitted that
the consumption of milk is too low. Milk is the most valuable of
all foods. It is much less used than it should be—in this country
less than in any part of the world where it is obtainable. The
Scandinavian countries are well ahead of Great Britain in this
matter. Because of its value as a food, dieteticians are constantly
advocating its increased consumption. The nutritional value of
milk as a corrective to deficiencies of various types in the diet is
now generally accepted. It is valuable to the adult and probably
indispensable to the child. In many diets it is the chief source of
the fat soluble vitamins, of protein of good quality, and of calcium
salts.
If it be suggested that milk is expensive, the answer is that
it is not so expensive as many other commodities (e.g. meat) which
are considered essential by most caterers. The fact is, that no poor
person should buy meat till they have afforded at least one pint
per head of milk.
It is for these reasons that dieticians are persistently advocating
a larger consumption of milk, and it is becoming an essential
article in the diet of an increased number of individuals.
But as epidemiologists, we have to look upon another side
of the question. It is an undoubted fact that milk can act as a
vehicle of numerous infections; milk-spread disease is a common
phenomenon. Milk probably comes next to water as a vehicle of
the most extensive outbreaks of disease. Scattered throughout
literature are numerous accounts of outbreaks due to a tainted milk
supply.