COUNTRY AND LONDON MILK
Mr. R. S. Cross, of Petersfield, writes to us:— "With reference to the very useful article on ’London Milk,’ in the British Medical Journal for Nov 23, I would remark that the evil does not begin, although it appears to end with a vengeance, with the retail dealer. The contractor in town beats down the dairy farmer in the country as to price per gallon, until the latter thinks it fair play to send up half new and half skimmed milk. In illustration of this, I would observe that I live in a rich grazing district, from which a large quantity of milk is sent up to the London market daily; and that I know it to be a common thing for suppliers of new milk to make large quantities of butter weekly. Again, if the children of the London poor are poorly off with bad milk, they are better off than their country cousins, who get none—every drop goes to the station, and it is only as a very great favour that a little can be got for a sick child. The healthy never taste it; and I have no doubt that the absence of this, the natural and most wholesome food for young children, is the real explanation of the enlarged glands, the tumid abdomens, the sickly-looking, knock-kneed, ill developed boys and girls one sees struggling up to be the fathers and mothers of the next generation. The supply of good milk to the London poor is certainly a great thing; but I am inclined to think the want of it by nearly the whole of the poorer part of the community throughout the realm a greater, and an evil of a magnitude to call for your best endeavours on their behalf."—British Medical Journal.
See also 17-Dec-1867