494 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



for example, milk drawn under aseptic conditions averaged 295 bacteria 

 per c.c; under ordinary conditions, 786,000 per c.c. 



In certain cases milk coming from sanitary dairies is endorsed by a 

 board of examining physicians and experts. Thus, the Milk Com- 

 mission^^ of the Medical Society of the County of New York endorses 

 milk from various dairies when the acidity of the milk is below 0.2 per 

 cent., and when the milk contains less than 30,000 bacteria per c.c. The 

 Milk Commission of the Philadelphia Pediatric Society give their 

 endorsement for milk free from pus and injurious germs, and having not 

 more than 10,000 germs per c.c. 



Such milk naturally has enhanced keeping qualities, and milk and 

 cream from several such hygenic dairies in the United States were 

 shipped to the Paris Exposition in 1900, arriving in good condition 

 after 1 5 to 1 8 days in transit. 



The adoption of a numerical standard seems a very necessar}- step. 

 Bitter suggests that 50,000 organisms per c.c. should be a maximum 

 limit in milk intended as human food. Park thinks that any intelligent 

 farmer, with sufficient cleanliness and a low temperature, can supply 

 milk averaging not over 100,000 bacteria per c.c, when twenty-four 

 hours old, and suggests that the sale of milk should be so regulated 

 that that containing more than this number per c.c. should be 

 excluded from the market. Rochester, N.Y., has already tried the 

 enforcement of this standard, with good results. In the opinion of 

 Russell, " the practical difficulties to contend with in establishing a milk 

 standard based upon a quantitive bacterial determination are such as to 

 render its general adoption extremely problematical." On the other 

 hand, this investigator advocates the employment of the acid test, and 

 postulates that milk should not contain more than 0.2 per cent, figured 

 as lactic acid, and if possible the acidity should be brought down to 

 0.15 per cent. 



To conclude, from what has been brought up before you, it is 

 undoubtedly easy to see the reason for cleanliness in all operations con- 

 nected with the dairy business. " All the results of scientific investi- 

 gation," says Fleischmann, " which have found such great practical 

 application in the treatment of disease, in disinfection, and in the 

 preservation of various products, are almost entirely ignored in milking," 

 and the only remed}' for this state of affairs is " a campaign of education 

 among the farmers who produce milk, concerning, first, the simple 

 protection of a readily putrescible fluid from pollution with dirt or other 

 elements of decay ; and, second, the sanitary protection of milk from 

 infection."^* 



