Poverty : a study of town life / by B. Seebohm Rowntree.

  • Seebohm Rowntree
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Poverty : a study of town life / by B. Seebohm Rowntree. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    440/472 (page 404)
    APPENDIX F While much may admittedly be done to improve the milk supply of cities by municipal inspection and control, it is, however, to private initiative that the most effective and far-reaching reforms yet introduced in any large centre of population have been due. In Copenhagen, for instance, the writer has recently been able to inspect an institution which constitutes a splendid example of the way in which private enterprise can safeguard public health from the dangers of contaminated milk. Twenty-two years ago a merchant of that city, struck by the difficulty of getting pure and wholesome milk, determined to bring about an improvement in the supply. Having first secured the promise of the support of the principal doctors, he formed a small company (the Copenhagen Milk Supply Association), and commenced to build up what is now one of the finest and largest businesses of its kind in the world, and one that is a complete financial success. The regulations imposed on the farmers deal- ing with the Company are strict, and comprise such items as a fortnightly veterinary inspection of every cow and the immediate disposal of any that show the least symptom of disease; inspec- tion of the sanitary arrangements and examination of water supplies; proper feeding of the cows, which is a more vital matter, especially in the milk supply for infants, than most people have any idea of; cleanliness of the shippons, of the cows themselves, and of the operation of milking; the health of the milkers and farm hands; and the prompt and thorough cooling of the milk with ice to arrest bacterial growth. The distribu- tion of the milk is carefully carried out. From the farms it is conveyed in sealed cans by the Company’s own railway vans, which are cleansed daily, and in warm weather are liberally supplied with ice—in pleasant contrast to the prevailing methods in this country. On arrival at the Company’s depot the milk is