190 ANNUAL, RETORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of the ideal when we expose it to stable aii* loaded with dust, to the 

 falling hairs from the animal's coat, and to many other unsanitary 

 eooditions, during its commercial life in passing from the udder of the 

 healthy cow to the stomach of the consumer, possibly one hundred 

 or more miles away. 



If the laws of hygiene are so strictly followed by nature in guard- 

 ing the health of the young of animals, why should we be inditferent 

 to the importance of their application when it becomes necessary 

 for man to use the milk of the cow as a commercial food product for 

 the sustenance of that portion of humanity who need the best and 

 purest the market can afford. Do we not blunder to the verge of 

 sinning when we go on with its production from day to day under 

 conditions that are far from being conducive to the result demanded 

 by the age — a food product that shall be ideally wholesome and nutri- 

 tious, aud imparting only health and vigor to the consumer. 



It is not a new thought or principle that is involved in dairy hy- 

 giene, but on old principle or law of nature under a comparatively 

 neW' name. We oftentimes shy at names before we understand their 

 true meaning, and the sense in which they are- meant to be used. We 

 have always practiced dairy hygiene, so far as its principles have 

 been understood, by giving our dairy products such care and protec- 

 tion as we thought necessary. We did as we were taught, but the 

 teaching did not convey the idea that there was dirt which the naked 

 eye could not discern, or which could not be removed by the or- 

 dinary strainer. In short, we applied the principle according to the 

 knowledge we possessed- We did not know so much of the unseen 

 world in the past as we do now — that world teeming with life which 

 has been revealed to us by the aid of the microscope and the pro- 

 cesses of the laboratory. We did not know that particles of dust 

 could be the means of conveying from one place to another the germs 

 of fermentation, or those of disease, the deadliness of the one or both 

 depending upon their origin. 



The application of the principles of sanitation, or hygiene, must 

 depend wholly upon our knowledge of the possible and more probable 

 sources of contamination, for without such knowledge we cannot 

 guard the channels through which contamination or infection is 

 likely to course, and it is a well established fact that we cannot by 

 our senses, or otherwise, detect the presence of germs in milk or 

 other food until they have produced in them the consequent changes 

 j)eculiar to their species. When it becomes necessary to prevent the 

 entrance of such germs into our foods, we must adopt such means 

 in their handling as will not expose them to conditions to germ life, 

 for where germs are present, they will surely find their way to the 

 soil most fertile for their growth. 



