Missouri Housekeepers' Conference Association. 443 



THE PURE MILK PROBLEM. 



(.Mrs. Walter McNab Miller, Chairman National Pure Food Committee, Columbia, Mo.) 



Dr. Charles Harrington, Secretary of State Board of Health of 

 Massachusetts, has pointed out the fact that one of the most serious 

 problems confronting both economists and sanitarians is the en- 

 ormous mortality of infants below the age of one year. In Germany 

 one-fifth of those born die in the first year; in England one-tenth 

 die, while in America so far as we can judge from the small regis- 

 tration area, the per cent, of deaths varies from 12 1-2 to 25 . But 

 this is only part of the story. 



Of this number, 5.3 per cent, of those who die are nursed by the 

 mother, 6 per cent, are fed on certified milk, or goat's milk, while 

 the mortality of those who are fed on ordinary market milk reaches 

 the enormous rate of 88.7 per cent. Nor does the mischief end 

 here. I quote from the last number of the Medical News ; "Accord- 

 ing to the last report of the Medical Officer of the London County 

 Council, the adverse environment which slaughters one in five of 

 the infants born in larger cities has a maiming effect on those left." 

 There has been a tendency to look on a high death rate of infants 

 as a natural process of weeding out the unfit, leaving the strong 

 ones to survive in order to propagate a hardy race. This view can 

 no longer be held, as experience has shown that many of the sur- 

 vivors are liable to develop into weaklings and frequently to be- 

 come the progenitors of useless children." Here is the subject of 

 race suicide viewed from a new standpoint.' Now in this ques- 

 tion of a bad milk supply, the use of preservatives plays a strong 

 part — not alone because they are injurious in themselves, but also 

 because by use, their unclean methods of taking and handling the 

 milk are covered. There have been scientists — notably Behring of 

 Marburg — who have advocated the use of formaldehyde in milk, 

 but the weight of authority is distinctly against the use of this or 

 any other preservative. Professor Schlossman of Dresden who, 

 by virtue of his position as physician to a large childrens' hospital, 

 and through a carefully conducted series of experiments on chil- 

 dren's milk, is in a position to know, writes thus in the Archiv fur 

 Kinderheilkunde — "The addition of formaldehyde to milk changes 

 the cream essentially in its chemical nature, the milk albumin is 

 wholly altered in that it loses its ability to coagulate, while the 

 fat is so affected that in certain mediums it will not dissolve." He 



