TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS. Some interesting figures have just been made public concerning the results of the establishment of Corporation milk depots in Glasgow add other British towns. This measure has of late years been taken in several American cities, and the results, especially in regard to the health of young children, have been striking. In Scotland the case seems to have been otherwise. At Glasgow the percentage of deaths - of- infants from classes of disease specified during the time a milk depot was run in 1909 and 1910 was-as follows: Diseases of the digestive system, 24.7, as compared with a general infantile mortality in Glasgow of 11.9. Tuberculous disease, 7.5, as compared with a general rate of 4.5. Infectious diseases, 16.1, as compared with a general rate of 14.0. Naturally a negative result of this kind is not so valuable as positive ones, such as those obtained in the American cities. It will be Seen, also, that the depot only ran for two years, and it has been pointed out that only a certain number of infants were fed on the' sterilised milk supplied by the depot, and that a large proportion of that majority may have been given it because they were deli cate. More definite figures are afforded by the town of Rochdale, where during the same two years the percent ages of deaths of infants fed on boiled, sterilised, and not treated milk, were: — Boiled. Sterilised. N.T. 1909 17.5 10.1 7.1 1910 16.6 9.7 13.3 It will be seen that the babies fed on boiled milk did far Worse than the othex-s during -both years. Those brought up on sterilised milk did slightly better, on the average of the two years,” than those who had the untreated milk., The curious thing is that the untreated milk gave better results ixx 1909 and the' sterilised, milk in 1910, The results of investigations such as these go to strengthen the doubt as to whether pasteurisation is an effective or boiling a desirable process in the preparation of milk for consumption by human beings, especially by infants. They certainly indicate how difficult the question of “clean milk” is, and how cautiously it should Ixe approached by Municipalities and Governments. The figures adduced from Rochester and some other towns in the United States, also referring to the supply of milk under medical supervision, are far more convincing. In some of these cases the reduction in the infant deathrate has been remarkable.