On conditions necessary to obtain a clean milk supply and on methods of testing cows' milk in relation to standards of cleanness : report to the Sub-committee on clean milk / by S. Delépine, June 16th, 1918.

  • Delépine, Sheridan, 1855-1921.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On conditions necessary to obtain a clean milk supply and on methods of testing cows' milk in relation to standards of cleanness : report to the Sub-committee on clean milk / by S. Delépine, June 16th, 1918. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION. I'lie fo]lo^\'iilg report is the oiitcoine of a request made by the Sub¬ committee ou Clean Milk aiqiointefl in 1916 by the Sanitary Committee of the Manchester City Council. My instructions were to report on ;— (1) Tlu' best method of detei-mining the degree of contamination of milk for administrative ])ur])oses ; (2) 9die actual state of the Manchester milk sup]>ly. 9'iiese points are dealt with in Sections I. and 11. of the report. The state of things evidenced by the results recorded in Section II. is very unsatisfactory, and it is clear that if samples of milk wmre tested regularly for administrative pur])oses the Sanitary Committee would be placed in a difficult position, for if no action wars taken, this wmuld be equivalerd to a tacit acceptance of a deplorable state of things. If, on the other hand, action were taken, a considerable portion of the milk supply w ould have to be condemned. 1 believe that farmers and dairymen are, generally, linacqiwAnted ivitli the precantions ivhicJi have to be adopted in order to produce clean, uncon¬ taminated milk, and that the unsatisfactory state of the milk supply is not, as a rule, due to wilful neglect on their part. Consequently, the mere condemnation of contaminated milk would not necessarily cause a certain or rapid improvement. It appeared, therefore, desirable that I should give a short account of the ways in which, under existing conditions, cow’s milk is contaminated at the time of collection and in the course of distribution. This I have done in Section III., in wdiich the beneficial effects of certain precautions are also indicated. In Section IV. a comparison is made betA\een the existing state of things and the improvements resulting from the adoption of I)etter methods. The last section deals with the methods which, in my opinion, should be adopted in order to obtain a clean milk supply. Before concluding these preliminary remarks, I may point out that, wliile it is necessary to obtain a good supply of clean milk in order to ])rotect the community against milk-borne diseases, this is also desirable from an economic point of view, for it is clear that as clean milk retains its freshness for two or three days without any special treatment, it could be utilised to greater advantage than dirty milk, which is very liable to become sour in less than 24 hours. The frequency wdtli which large consignments of milk are spoilt owing to early souring is, under existing conditions, a cause of a very material loss of food and money. SHERIDAN DELEPINE, Professor of Public Health and Bacteriology, University of Manchester.