OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 22, 30 May 1913, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Woruea And Children. "It is wiser to put up a feuce at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." DR. CBAMPTALOUP'S LECTURE. HOW BACTERIA ARC COUNTED. The method of counting the bacteria may interest you. An accurate quantity—generally a cubic centimetre—of the niilk is mixed with varying quantities of sterile water, so that it is highly diluted in definite proportions. A cubic Centimetre of each of these dilutions is added to liquefied culture medium, thoroughly mixed, and the 1 whole'poured into one of the glass capsules called petri dishes. When the medium basset, the series of dishes is put in the incubator for 48 hours, and then examined with a hand magnifying glass. Each bacterium present in the original dilution of the milk will now have mutilated to such an extent as to have formed a visible growth. The number of these visible growths, or colonies, as they are called, is then counted, and by a process of multiplication we find the number of bacteria per cuoic centimetre in the milk sample. A cubic centremetre represents about a third of an ordinary thimbleful. In this, way the number of bacteria in the city water supply was counted, and the average of a series gave 350 bacteria per cubic centremetre, though this varies considerably at different periods of the year. Then some of the same water was filtered through an ordinary charcoal filter, and a comparison of the two lantern slides shows that there is .1 considerable reduction in the number of bacteria present.

SAMPLES OF MILK. Next, the following series of milk samples was examined:—No. 1 sample of milk may be taken as the ordinary :nilk supply as delivered. The num!>er of living bacteria per cubic centimetre was 32,000. Next\ a sample of humanised and pasteurised milk freshly prepared which gave only 2700 living bacteria per cubic centimetre. Note the vary great improvement as a result of -pas-* fceurisation. ■. . u ~.;: . Next, samples A, B, C, and I), fromjows milked under varying {conditions,. ind the Examinations made-,-, almost immediately; Sample A was .milked with every, possible precaution against contamination, _ajid_ the Jow wninf. nf £0 organ jf>ms"»#dM: cubic'" 'ijcfentlifafetfe was .TeibWeWtotimtJ . O YO/.1-..A :

~ Sample B was milked under,,similar, though less rigid, precautions, and the count, was 4000 per cubic centremetre.

Sample .0 was milked With ordinary care, such as the washing of the cow's udder, milkman's handstand the rinsing ;Out,j of the bucket'.,>nth. hot' water, f such conditions sl'wxild be,, at least,,aiij absolute requirement ql\ ill .dairymen. The count in,tins case mounted up to 10,800 p.er'cub'ic ccii'ti-' : /■ : " '' '''*."''; "' ' . , Sample D was milked, as,lam afraid oo many, cows are milked, 'with no pecial care with regard to cleanliness, ■ itli a resulting count of 57,000 per übic centimetre.

Tlie difference between the four samples is remarkable, and speaks voltmes in favour of clean milking, and ct, as milk goes, none of these is >e a very bad sample. Twenty-sevon samples of milk as •upplied from door to door were tlien xaniined, and the average count mind to be 10,700 organising per cubic entimetre. Similar experiments in i targe American city gave an average if 11,2,70,000 per cubic centimetre, •o that our milk, at' the time of eximination, compares more than favoribly with that city's supply.

Rosenau, in a recent book on milk supplies, states that certified milk hould never exceed 10,000 bacteria >er cubic centrcmetre, and that health ifficials should endeavour to keep the general supply below 100,000 basteria ;>er cubic centrcmetre. I have endeavoured to tell and show you something of these wonderful 'ittle plants we call bacteria, and the >xperiments we have made with milk prdVe that with ordinary cleanliness ind care we can secure our food supplies, more particularly milk, meat, and fish, in a state of comparative purity. What T want you to consider is this: [9 it not worth while paying a littlo more for milk which our dairyman .-an certify as produced under the most cleanly conditions, and from cows certified as free from disease? Or, is it not worth patronizing the tradesman who screens his shop from flies and dust, and serves our meat, fish, or fruit in a cleanly manner? At the. recent Tuberculosis Conference mi Wellington we passed a resolution recommending as an initial step that hospital boards should lead the way by requiring that their milk supplier should be certified—a recommendation' which, I am glad to say, the Otago! Hospital Hoard have wisely adopted. ■ ■