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will not only transmit consumption to children but also to calves.
Not more than .5 per cent. of calves are born with tuberculosis,
whereas at 2 years of age 31.3 per cent. are affected. That is to
say, 60 times as many cows acquire tuberculosis as are born with
it; and this is so simply because cattle are kept in ill-ventilated
sheds and fed on unboiled milk. For it has been shown that if
calves are fed with milk from tuberculous cows, that the calves
drinking unboiled milk acquire the disease, whereas those
drinking boiled milk are exempt. Cattle become tuberculous from
the same causes that make human beings consumptive—insufficient
fresh air and tainted food.
A Sanitary Authority cannot compel people to boil milk, but
it has full powers to prevent the sale of milk from tuberculous
cattle, and its obvious duty is to exercise those powers.
Several of the neighbouring Authorities are having all cows
in their districts tested with tuberculin by their Veterinary Inspector,
and I strongly advise you to follow the same course. It may
seem hard upon cowkeepers to oblige them to sell cows that are
seemingly well and yielding a good supply of milk, but your duty
as a Sanitary Authority is to protect the health of the children
whose physical strength is of the utmost importance to the future
welfare of the country.
Only a small portion of the milk supply of the town is local.
The means of transport from a distance is far from satisfactory. It
is no uncommon thing to see railway porters trundling cans with
the milk overflowing into the shallow tray at the top, so that it
washes the porter's hands as they move the cans about. This
milk flows back into the can when it is stood upright again, so that
it is clear many opportunities are given for contamination. Where
Authorities act very stringently in regard to their own milk supply,
it is not an infrequent proceeding on the part of dairymen who
profess to sell milk from their own cows only, to import milk from
a distance to a station in the district of a neighbouring Authority
and bring it secretly to the milk shops, there to be mixed with that
from their own cows.