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8
daily farms and milk sellers' shops. I have
every reason to feel satisfied with their
general condition, and if all the milk consumed
in this borough was derived from
home sources little anxiety on that score
need be entertained by the public. But, as
we know, a very considerable proportion of
it is imported from various outside farms,
the surroundings and arrangements in connection
with which are, 1 fear, not invariably
so surely satisfactory that ordinary
precautions should be neglected. Hence it
is I have from time to time suggested such
measures as pasteurising, sterilising or
what can easily be done in every household,
simply bringing the milk to the boiling
point lor a single moment. By such processes
the bacilli of tubercle and those of
diseases, which are often milk borne, as
diphtheria, enteric lever, etc., are destroyed,
and the consumer of the milk so far protected
from their invasion. In the process
of pasteurisation, these various germs are
renidered quite sterile, and the actual
taste, colour, and nutritive properties of
the milk remain unchanged. It may be
well to explain that by the term " pasteurisation
" is meant exposing milk, in a proper
form of vessel, for twenty to thirty minutes
to a temperature of 155 to 165 degrees F.
Milk very readily becomes contaminated by
gases and effluvia to which it is exposed.
To guard against its contamination it should
never be kept in dwelling rooms or illventilated
places, and never in proximity
to decomposing organic matter (dustbins,
etc.), and should be lightly covered with
muslin or similar substance. The vessels
it is kept in should be frequently scalded,
and be scrupulously clean. It has been my
custom before concluding these reports to
make a reference to subjects which strictly
belong to the Borough Surveyor's department,
but at the same time are of public
and: eanitarv interest and importance in
their bearing on public health and in connection
with which we, from time to time,
meet in conference. At the risk of repeating
what our Surveyor no doubt reports in
due course I am happy to confirm his
opinion that the new roads and new properties
constructed during the year have
drainage arrangements ample and complete,
and also that the large number of