HUNTING MICROBES

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18367, 28 April 1925, Page 12

HUNTING MICROBES

BY MOTOR. LONDON'S GERM POLICEMEN. "Treasure hunts" by motor-car, such as thoso recently so popular in "smart set" circles, may be thrilling experiences (writes a correspondent in a London paper), but they could hardly be more interesting than the molor-iide I had a few days ago in ' search of germs.

For guide I had a "milk policeman," whose business it is to scour the metropolis for samples of its milk supplies. Every day .a small army of these "policemen" go out to look for their elusive quarry. Samples are taken from milkmen on their rounds, from dairies, from distributing depots, and from farms in the country where the milk for London is produced. All the samples—and last year no fewer than 816,992 were taken in. this way—are sent to a central laboratory, where they are dealt with by a staff of analysts.

From Cow to Consumer. f ■ Not until one has been behind the scenes of a great m'ilk supply organisation, like that which is responsible for three-quarters of tho milk consumed in London, does one realise the amazing amount of care and labour jspent in ensuring that our milk supply 3hall bo as pure as it is possible to make it. Prom the time it is yielded by the cow, right up to the moment it is delivered at the householder's door, Lon-don's-milk is under constant supervision, quite from thajt enforced by the Government. Nothing seeins to be done by human hands, except the loading and unloading of tho churns and, the keeping of Ihe necessary records and accounts. Complicated machinery is largely responsible for pasteurisation, refrigeration, bottling, and labelling, to say nothing of the actual milking of the cows, while even the churns are cleansed and sterilised by special apparatus that does in an hour work that, formerly required the services of a dozen men for twice that length of time.

How Microbes Multiply. The head of the laboratory section pointed out that in spite of this vigilance, however, milk often becomes impure .in the household. He mentioned a test in which some milk going into a doctor's house was concerned. A test made just before the milk was handed to the maid showed the presence of, roughly, COOO microbes. In half an hour the number had increased to nearly 500,000, simply because the milk had been poured into a. jug that was not thoroughly clean! "How difficult it is to deal with some of these bacteria," said the expert, "is shown by the ease of a dairyman whose customers complained that his milk 'had an unpleasant taste. I wont to his shop and at once detected a peculiar odoUr in the atmosphere. Samples of tho milk, were taken, and I discovered the presence of a largo number of. unusual 'curved' bacteria of a virulent kind. "Strangely enough, no customer suffered in "health, probablv because none had partaken very freely of the milk, but I should not have been surprised to hear that an epidemic had broken out in that district. Steps were taken to deal with the menace, and there has since been no recurrence of the trouble.

Her Own Fault. "Most of tho complaints wc-receive arise from the customers' own neglect. For,, instance, not long ago a woman complained that the milk from one of our branches invariably went bad on being boiled. On examining the milk sample she"sent, I found distinct traces of vinegar. Investigation proved that the milk was habitually boiled in a saucepan used for making a certain kind of sauce. The saucepan was not kept clean- liencc the difficulty with the milk.

"At no other period has our national milk supply been of a higher standard of purity, and figures show that our campaign 4n favour of still better and cleaner milk is already having a beneficial effect on the general health of children.''