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it passes frorti the cow, during the transit by rail,
and the distribution by the retail dealer, than is
provided for by the Law as it stands at present.
The Council passed a resolution on the 14th
December, 1903, dealing with the matter of cooperation
in veterinary inspection of cows on the
part of neighbouring districts, and 011 the 8th
November, 1904, a letter was addressed to the
Local Government Board urging them to make this
examination compulsory instead of optional.
It is interesting to trace the history of the
outlying milk supply—not to Surbiton only, of
course, but to London and the suburbs as it is at
present. The milk is obtained from cows in the
country farms—in Dorsetshire, Wilts and Somerset,
and possibly even further—(generally under insanitary
conditions), leaving the cow at, say, 5 a.m., and
reaching the ordinary customer, at the earliest, on
the evening of the same day, but more often on the
following morning, i.e., twelve to twenty-four hours
(or even more) after milking, and after having
travelled, in the meantime, varying distances up to
as much 200 miles. Or if it should be the afternoon
milk, it travels during the night to allow of its being
on the breakfast table in the morning. Bearing
these simple facts in mind, it will be readily understood
that milk collected under possibly—nay,
probably—insanitary conditions, with an interval of
twelve to twenty-four hours for bacterial growth to
take place therein, must of necessity be unwholesome
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