A preliminary inquiry concerning the milk supply of schools / by C.E. Shelly.

  • Shelly, Charles Edward, 1854-
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A preliminary inquiry concerning the milk supply of schools / by C.E. Shelly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    risks which, as you claim to liave shown, do beset us every day of every term, what are the facts as regards tlie actual amount of school illness traceable to infection conveyed by milk ? I have known the life of my school for such ami such a numl)er of years ; we have had from time to time o])idemics of such and such diseases; but they have all (or almost all) been asorihed to personal infection, the details of which aj)peared at the time to be quite clearly established. Our >[edical Officer tells us that neither he nor the Medical Officer of Health for the di.strict has been able to trace any of this illness to the milk. Are we a fortu- nate exception to a general rule : and, if so, to what extent are we exceptional ? I must know how we stand in this rela- tion before I can feel justified in altering a sy.stem which seems hitherto not to have failed us ; and in substituting for it some method of treating the milk, which, apaii from any (luestion of expense, may excite a di.scontent so pronounced as to make it almost impracticable ; for, if my boys have not acquired a tolerance of boiled milk at home, they will emphatically condemn it at school ; and I may, like some of my colleagues, be compelled to discard it. F'urther, wliat arc the results achiev^ed in tho.se schools in which milk is sterilised, as compared with those in which it is drunk an naturcl ? I mean, what is the statistical evidence as to comparative immunity ? ” Xow, to such (pie.stions, we were ]>re])ared with practically no detailed and convincing answers. It uas in the hope that such might be forthcoming, one way or the other, that the annexed letter and form of inquiry were .sent to each member of the Association : and it is the re])lies to these which it it is now eiuleavoured to summarise. Enclosure.] MEDICAL OFFICERR OF SCHOOLS ASSOC'IATIOX. Dear Sir,—We herewith forward to you a reprint of the suggestive j)a|X‘r recently read before the Association by Dr. CmusToriiER ('iiild.s. But. while recognising the im])ortance of securing the juirity of tht‘ milk supplied in every cast' {vide the Association's Code of Rules, p. IS, ])aragraj)h V.). the ('ouncil is not cognisant of any mass of direct evidence to the effect that Sjhools have suffered from outbreaks, large or small, of illne.ss which hav(' h«‘en proved to be dm* to infect ion conveyed by milk. It is obviously of some imj>ort-