A Menace to Health

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 23, 11 June 1908, Page 22

A Menace to Health

Judging by the remarks of a number of medical men interviewed by the AucKTand ' Herald ', there' is as great a menace to public health in dirt as in adulteration. ' There . is 'J said one medical man to the 'Herald', 'a great deal of dirt about our streets Hi summer, and all sorts of food should be carefully protected, more particularly meat, fruit, and vegetables that are eaten uncooked. It seems to me- to be a relic of barbarism that meat should be hung" up in an open shop and exposed to all" the desiccated disease germs that are blown off .the street by the wind in

millions. No doubt a great many "of those germs are destroyed in cookingi but the danger is greater in regard to fruit and vegetables that a v re to be eaten without being cooked. One does_ not think of washing apples ahd pears, but we ought to do so. The washing that the salad vegetables get in the. summer time -is hardly sufficient to ensure them being free from the germs that are flying about. Then, again, take our milk supply,' the doctor continued. ' I think it is certainly better now than it has ever been before, but still if one went to the trouble of ..collecting the sediment at the bolt6m"of every- glass of milk the aggregate in the country would amount probably to some tons of manure in the course of a year. Many of the frequent cases of gastro-enlcri-tis that occur are, I honestly believe, traceable to the milk, not to* any impurities in the milk itself, but to outside germs deposited in it. The Health Department is hard at work, and we are advancing, but there is still much to be done before we can claim perfection in these matters.'