DAIRY MEETING. ig5 



drawn and when delivered, is possible ; and it is the right of 

 every consumer to demand it of his milkman. If we observe 

 the following precautions such a milk can be obtained and de- 

 livered to the consumers. 



First of all the milk must come from a cow that is free from 

 all signs of disease, which can be detected by either physical 

 signs or by chemical reactions. This will exclude tuberculosis. 

 This point should be an axiom in all milk production. 



Second, milk should be handled only by persons who are in 

 the best of physical health. This should exclude from the milk 

 most of the cases of infectious disease, such as typhoid and 

 scarlet fevers, diphtheria, measles, smallpox and cholera; and 

 leave only the small number of cases due to the physically well 

 carriers and incubation cases. This second point should also 

 be axiomatic. 



Third, the healthy cow should also be clean, so that no filth 

 can drop from her into the milk. This can be done by housing 

 her in a clean stable, so that the minimum amount of filth will 

 accumulate on her; and she should be brushed down before 

 milking, and the udder should be wiped ofif with a damp cloth. 

 This will eliminate the major part of the solid filth, and the 

 major part of the bacterial contamination of the milk due to 

 intestinal bacteria. This will cut off the most of the infantile 

 troubles which now follow the use of dirty milk. Covered pails 

 also aid in excluding dirt from the milk. 



Fourth, the milker, and all who later handle the milk should 

 not only be healthy, but they should also be clean. If we should 

 compel the milker and those who later handle the milk to be as 

 clean about this work as they would be when they sat down to 

 the table, the chance of dirt and bacterial filth falling from their 

 persons and garments into the milk would be eliminated, and 

 still more of the infant mortality would be cut off. This is 

 not an expensive proposition, and is one that the consumer has 

 a right to insist on. 



Fifth, the milk, when it has been drawn from a clean and 

 healthy cow by clean and healthy individuals, in clean dishes, 

 and handled in a clean and healthy way, should be at once 

 cooled to a temperature at which the bacteria do not multiply. 

 This will reduce the chance of souring through the retarda- 

 tion of the growth of the lactic acid group of bacteria, and will, 



