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as regards dental treatment, or the provision of dentures, were
unable to obtain such help until the child was born, owing to the
fact that the newborn child increased the number in the family
and brought the family within the scale for the provision of dental
treatment. The Committee felt that a scheme that delayed such
treatment until the birth of the child was wrong in principle, inasmuch
as such treatment should certainly be provided before childbirth.
Under the circumstances the Committee determined that
the unborn child should be considered as a member of the family
for the purpose of applying all scales for the granting of help under
the Maternity and Child Welfare Acts.
This determination of the Committee has been of the greatest
help to some of the poorer residents of Enfield, is far-seeing and wise.
MILK IN SCHOOLS.
During the course of the year a scheme was arranged by the
Milk Marketing Board in conjunction with the Board of Education,
whereby school children might be provided daily with one-third of a
pint of milk at the cost of one halfpenny per day. This scheme
recommended that the milk should be supplied in one-third of a pint
bottles and that the supply should be approved by the Medical
Officer of Health of the district. It further recommended that
where available only pasteurised milk should be approved for the
scheme.
When the scheme came into force in Enfield, only one firm in
the district held a licence to pasteurise or sell pasteurised milk. On
the other hand, many purveyors were pasteurising their milk, in
some cases unofficially, but did not hold a licence, and were, therefore,
not selling milk as pasteurised.
Following upon the recommendations of the Board of Education,
I informed all the teachers of the district that I would only be
prepared to approve pasteurised milk. As a result 5 other purveyors
of milk applied for a licence to sell pasteurised milk, and at
the moment of writing, 6 purveyors in the district possess such a
licence. In many cases the plant had to be improved, or new plant
bought in order to obtain adequate pasteurisation. It will be
remembered that pasteurised milk must not contain more than
100,000 germs per c.c. before delivery. Some of the samples taken
fell very short of this standard, but in all cases the purveyors took
steps to improve their plant in order to obtain the requisite purity
of their supplies. This scheme, therefore, has had a two-fold
advantage. Not only has it resulted in many hundreds of school
children obtaining a third of a pint of milk per day, but in addition,
it has improved the quality of the milk supply of the district.