Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Dairy produce in India / by P. W. O'Gorman. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![inches deep. In some of the smaller sheds I counted six animals in ten feet, but then they had the advantage of no drain.” [ Dr. Armstrong, Medical Officer of Health, N ewcastle-on-Tyne, advocates 800 cubic feet as the minimum for each cow in a cow house. (Int. Oong. Hyg.,i 1891, Vol. Ill, p. 169)] “It was or is impos- sible that the animals could lie down together ; they have to take it in turns. The drain is for the purpose of receiving the droppings, and is placed so close to the heels that no labour is required for cleaning. The refuse is carried or washed through into a shallow pit im- mediately outside the shed, and often mixes with human excrement drained into the same place from sources only too palpable to sight and smell. This mixture percolates through the sodden light soil, and as the wells which supply the drinking water for the cows are only a few feet away, you can imagine what must be the nature of tho contamination and the miracle which is exercised every day in warding off communicable disease from milk consumers. The milch cows’ lot in the hands of the Calcutta wholesale milk supplier is not a happy one. Tethered in sheds from the moment they are bought, they never leave again for pasturage, water, or any other purpose ; they are closely confined, fed on husks of gram and grain, chaff, and occasionally a little oil cake ; rendered barren by a most inhuman process of cruelty which is inflicted twice a day or oftener to make them render up their milk freely ; and then after patient endurance of these agonies for six months, which is mercifully not often extended to the year, they are led forth to the butcher’s knife, and so from 30,000 to 50,000 cows are led annually to the shambles instead of contributing to the increase and purity of the milk supply.” (Indian Daily News, September 1894.) Now, what is this barren-resulting inhuman process alluded to? It is known as “phooka” (blowing,) and consists of blowing air into the vagina with the mouth by means of a bamboo tube six inches lomu This causes immediate bearing-down pains which makes the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21704995_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
