View report page

21
report by the late Dr. Thorne-Thorne, in which the dangers
arising to man from the source in question were pointed out,
and I ventured the suggestion that to obtain the end the late
Vestry had in view they direct their attention to obtaining, if
possible, an alteration in the law.
Following upon this the late Vestry communicated with the
Local Government Board, pointing out the grave danger to
which children are exposed by the consumption of milk contaminated
with tubercle bacilli, and the need for legislation
dealing with the sale of such milk. The other local authorities
were communicated with on the subject, with the result that
fourteen of them wrote to the Local Government Board,
concurring in the views of the Vestry. It was also probably
the means of causing the Hackney Vestry to take 100 samples
of milk for bacteriological examination, the result of which
being such as to influence the Public Health Committee of the
late Westminster Vestry, in the absence of legislative power
to deal with the subject, to cause a circular to be issued to
every ratepayer in the district, advising that all milk should
be boiled and the careful cleansing of all vessels in which milk
had been stored.
The Contamination of Milk in Transit.
The "Justice of the Peace" for December contains the
following article on the above subject, which I consider to be
one of the utmost importance, and to be of general interest
from a public health point of view:—
"The Royal Agricultural Society was asked some six
months ago by one of its members as to the possibility of
milk, during its transit by railway, becoming infected
with the germs of tuberculosis. A reply has now been
made in the following terms:—(1) It is obvious that milk
(even absolutely pure milk, and milk which has been
effectually sterilised) is quite capable of being contaminated
with tubercle bacilli or other infective organisms,
unless means are adopted to keep it from contact
with infective matter, which may be conveyed to it at
any time by the atmosphere and in other ways. The
society is fully alive to the dangers to the public health
which may arise from the prevalent habit of expectoration
by possibly consumptive persons on railway platforms,
highways, and other public places, and has cooperated
with other public bodies in endeavouring to
arouse public attention to this matter. The possibility
must not, however, be excluded that sufficient care is not