194 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



side of water, which is so much used as is milk. The great 

 users of milk are children and sick persons, for both of whom 

 its easy digestibility makes it an ideal food, provided it be pure 

 and clean. But this very class of persons, who through deli- 

 cate health have to use milk as a food are the very ones who 

 are least prepared to resist the onslaught of the diseases that 

 are borne in milk. Thus we find diphtheria, measles, scarlet 

 fever, and summer complaint to be especially children's dis- 

 eases, and to reap their greatest mortality from this class, while 

 typhoid fever requires a weakened system to permit the germ to 

 gain a foot-hold. Thus the contamination of the ideal food 

 for these two classes of persons will result in the greatest 

 amount of danger to them. The same statement holds good in 

 regard to any adulteration of milk, although not to be noticed 

 as quickly or in as marked a degree as in the case of bacterial 

 contamination of the milk. 



Now in this discussion I am not arguing that all milk ought 

 to be of the very highest quality that it is possible to produce it 

 from a bacterial standpoint. I am not arguing for the produc- 

 tion of all milk as of a "certified" grade. If a person wants 

 this grade of milk and is willing to pay the cost of it, he has 

 the right to get it. But the expense of production puts this 

 class of milk out of the question for the ordinary consumer. 



I do, however, go on the assumption that nothing is fit for a 

 food, or ought legally to be sold for a food, that will cause dis- 

 ease among its users. This is the assumption that all of our 

 pure food laws go on. There is, of course, no question but that 

 we have the right, and that we will exercise it, of throwing out 

 any milk that contains the germs of infectious disease, such as 

 typhoid and scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles and cholera. But 

 the greatest trouble from milk comes in the case of infants, 

 and the common diarrheal diseases in their case. These com- 

 plaints are caused, in the main, by bacteria which enter the milk 

 through carelessness, and enter it on the solid physical dirt 

 which enters the milk during the process of milking, and which 

 contains intestinal bacteria from the cow's intestines. Such 

 dirt, both physical and bacterial, is preventable, and is but a 

 mark of carelessness. 



To get an acceptable milk, that is physically clean, and o^ 

 such low bacterial content as to be free from danger, both when 



