4i8 THE BACTERIAL ASPECTS OF PASTEURIZATION 



Pasteurization has the well-nigh unanimous indorsement of sanitarians and pedia- 

 tricians. 



Pasteurization is too important a public health measure to leave to individual 

 caprice. The process should be under official supervision. The sanitary code should 

 clearly define the requirements, and pasteurized milk should be labeled as such, stat- 

 ing the degree of heat and the length of time and the date on which the process was 

 done. Action for misbranding may be taken for milk labeled "pasteurized" but which 

 has been processed by improper or incomplete methods. Milk should not be pasteur- 

 ized twice. 



Only pasteurizing machinery of an approved design should be permitted, and 

 the management and care of the entire procedure should be under skilled supervision 

 and frequent inspection. In addition, bacteriological examination of samples before 

 and after the process tells the story of its efficiency. 



Pasteurized milk should be bottled by machinery immediately following the proc- 

 ess, kept cold, and delivered promptly. The bottles should first be disinfected with 

 steam or scalding water. All milk, whether raw or pasteuri ed, should be kept clean, 

 cold, and covered. 



Milk should be pasteurized at some central station where it may be done scientifi- 

 cally under official surveillance. In other words, it should be done for the house- 

 holder just as in the case of central water-purification plants. If water needs filtra- 

 tion or chlorination, experience teaches that it is inadvisable and expensive to de- 

 pend on the householder to carry out the process. The same is true with pasteuriza- 

 tion. 



There has been a prejudice against pasteurization. To the sanitarian this is un- 

 reasonable and unnecessary. Pasteurization as a process does not depend upon faith 

 but upon fact, and its problems cannot be solved by discussion but by the confirma- 

 tion of the data obtained by careful observation. It is difficult for the sanitarian to 

 understand why so many people oppose so simple and effective a protection against 

 sickness and untimely death. To the health officer pasteurization is a major public 

 health prophylactic measure; in fact, it is now almost universally used by the large 

 dairies in our metropolitan cities. The problem at present is to extend this protection 

 to the milk supplies of the smaller towns and rural sections. This is fraught with 

 practical difticulties largely economic. For smaller towns, co-operation and consoH- 

 dation of the industry are an advantage. 



Pasteur did not think of milk when he advocated the heating of beer and wine, 

 but, as with much of the other work of this genius, he established here a fundamental 

 principle which has signal public health applications. 



