16 Third Annual Report op the 



There has been something of an effort made, in obedience to a 

 sentiment prevailing in some portions of the State, to change the 

 milk law on the ground that it is unjust in that it will not allow 

 the defendant to introduce evidence to prove that he did not 

 adulterate his milk, or that it was not adulterated by anyone else 

 with his knowledge, and that it is just as it came from the 

 cow. I am of the opinion that if the law were changed to admit 

 of this kind of evidence it would practically destroy its usefulness 

 by making it impossible for this Department to convict a person 

 of selling adulterated milk. Our only means would be to prove 

 the actual act of adulterating. 



It will be seen by those who will investigate or inquire into the 

 matter closely that this Department does not charge the defendant 

 with having adulterated his milk, or with knowing that it was 

 adulterated, but that he is charged with selling, offering for sale or 

 exposing for sale milk that is adulterated, it being the theory of the 

 State that to prosecute along other lines would be so expensive 

 and impracticable that the letter of the law would probably be a 

 dead letter; they, therefore, determined upon the policy to hold the 

 man who offered for sale or sold the milk responsible for the purity 

 of the goods, not stopping to inquire how they became adulterated, 

 but to put upon the vendor the responsibility. In the Coubt of 

 Appeals, in the case of the People v. Cipperly (101 N. Y., 634), after 

 carefully considering the law, this was held to be the doctrine. 



At first sight it may seem a little harsh, but I am of the opinion 

 that until such time as the advocates of the change produce evi- 

 dence to show that harm has actually come to some innocent per- 

 son, by virtue of the enforcement of this law, that there should be 

 no change made, in view particularly of the fact that so much good 

 has come from the enforcement under the present standard. It is 

 notorious that about 99 per cent, of all the milk sold upon the mar- 

 kets to-day comes above the State standard, while it is equally no- 

 torious that prior to the enactment of this law, three-quarters of 

 the milk sold upon the market came below it. 



