Report on the public health of Finsbury 1907 including annual report on factories and workshops.
- Finsbury (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
- Date:
- 1908
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Report on the public health of Finsbury 1907 including annual report on factories and workshops. Source: Wellcome Collection.
87/172 page 83
![83 One hundred and fifty cubic centimetres (150 c.c.), equal to 5.28 ounces, British, of each sample were submitted to examination in the following way, All the solid particles in each sample of milk were collected as a deposit by prolonged centrifugation in a Runne machine. The amount of sediment thus collected was then estimated by bulk. Next, six coverglass specimens were prepared from the sediment, and stained for microscopic examination. The residue of the sediment was used for the biological test, being divided into two equal portions, each of which was administered to a guinea-pig. [The results in detail of the examination were set out in the Council's Minutes ] I. The Condition of the Samples with respect to General Cleanliness. In the first place it may be mentioned that, excepting sample 20, which was heavily tinged with anatto, none of the samples presented any obvious appearance of added colouring matter. The amount of foreign dirt present in each sample was carefully estimated by gauging the amount of sediment thrown down after a prolonged centrifugation of the milk. The term foreign dirt, it may be explained, is used as denoting extraneous solid matter which has gained access to the milk after it has left the cow, and not as including pus, which is presumably yielded by the cow with the milk. In one or two of the samples, however, and notably in the case of sample 24, the estimated bulk of foreign dirt does include a relatively small quantity of pus; but, generally speaking, the sediment on which the classification of these samples is founded consisted of foreign dirt only. Sample 10, which was heavily contaminated with pus, contained only a small quantity of foreign dirt. This foreign dirt, under the conditions of the taking of these samples, may obviously gain access to the milk either whilst still in the cowsheds, during process of transit, during storage with the retailer, or in the process of delivery to the consumer by the retailer. The methods of examination available will not, as a rule, afford any reliable indication as to the particular stage at which the bulk of the foreign dirt which may be present gained access to the milk. An endeavour was made to classify the varying degrees of cleanliness or dirtiness of these samples, according to an arbitrary figure scale, as follows:— 1.—Not more than three or four obvious particles of dirt in the sediment thrown down from 150 cubic centimetres of the milk. 2.—Rather more dirt than indicated by 1, but still not sufficient to form a coherent sediment. 3.—A small, but definite, coherent sediment of dirt particles.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/B18106158_0087.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
