134 A New Dairy Industry. 



danger to health and life in the consumption of un- 

 sterilized or raw milk by the transfer of germs of dis- 

 ease. This experience is to be regretted so much 

 the more, as its recognition is connected with the fact 

 that this danger is inherent also to the progressive 

 development of our dairying industry, or at least, 

 that it is spread by it. There is no doubt but that 

 creameries, on the plan of association, are liable to 

 spread disease ; that the}' may be, and have been, the 

 medium to cause smaller epidemics, such as of typhus, 

 scarlet fever, etc., even though they possess all advan- 

 tages of centralization and co-operation, they are, 

 however, not exempt from the great drawback which 

 adheres to all large institutions for distributing food- 

 stuffs : the wholesale spreading and distributing of 

 disease. 



But we need, most decidedly, protection against 

 such danger, and need it more particularly at such 

 times when the spreading of a disease has gained 

 larger dimensions, when the epidemic is rampant in 

 the houses of our cities and infection lurks behind 

 every imaginable vehicle. Ever since the study of 

 bacteriology has taught us that contageous diseases 

 are spread by bacteria or other low organisms, there 

 has been research on foot to investigate the roads on 

 which these infections move. Contrary to the former 

 belief that it was the local sanitary condition alone 

 that promoted a spreading, one has now cast suspicion 

 on the foods and beverages water and milk being 



