126 ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY 



consumer day by day. Many cities have adopted regulations 

 requiring dealers to protect their wares against exposure to 

 dust, insects, or other sources of infection. They have regu- 

 lations as to refrigeration of meats and fresh fish. And most 

 elaborate regulations have been adopted in regard to milk. 

 Since milk is the most easily spoiled of all our foods, and 

 since it is at the same time so indispensable for many people, 

 especially children and infants and sick people, it is one that 

 calls for strict protection against contamination and against 

 adulteration. On page 127 are given the milk standards and 

 the milk rules of many progressive cities. You will see that 

 there is a biological reason for every rule in the list. 



159. The public educates itself. A part of the public's 

 danger lies in its ignorance. New facts and new problems 

 are appearing every day. While the public tries to educate all 

 of its children through the public schools, it is impossible to 

 teach in the schools all that the children will need to know, 

 and it is certainly impossible to tell in advance what they will 

 need to know of the discoveries that are still to be made. 

 Every progressive community — whether it be a city, a state, 

 or a nation — seeks to advance important knowledge and to 

 spread it among its members as quickly as possible. The 

 state and local departments of health, the experiment stations, 

 and the schools are therefore all at work increasing the 

 protection of the public by means of bulletins, lectures, 

 announcements to the newspapers, and posters. 



In extreme cases the government will adopt prohibitive legislation ; 

 that is, laws that prohibit the sale of articles known to be injurious. 

 We can no longer say, " I have a right to eat or drink what I like." 

 Of course it is no one's business but my own if I prefer ice cream to 

 apple dumpling ; and it hardly seems fair for the government to tell 

 me that I may not eat ice cream, when I feel like it and am able to 

 pay for it. But in the case of certain drugs and drinks, the question 

 is rather one of protecting people against their own ignorance or 

 against vicious habits and customs (see p. 257, on drug laws, etc.). 



