The Normal Dairy. 189 



trate to a considerable degree the good for which the 

 establishment had been created. It is well to remem- 

 ber that conditions which might appear ideal to the 

 medical mind may be absolutely impracticable of ex- 

 ecution. 



However plain the detrimental effects of common 

 impure milk may be to the life in general, and to that 

 of infants in particular, the entire bearing of the 

 matter and the importance of ameliorating such con- 

 ditions is not recognized by the masses of the popu- 

 lation, nor w T ill the public be found willing to pay a 

 higher price for infants' milk as long as the entire 

 visible amelioration would consist in a new-fangled 

 stopper on the bottle or in a colored label around its 

 neck. 



The subtelty and the minuteness of the noxious 

 germs contained in ordinary cow's milk, and the im- 

 possibility of furnishing a daily certificate of their 

 deadening or removal, based on the finding of a 

 chemical and a microscopical investigation, make this 

 business, in a great degree, one of confidence placed 

 by the public in the honesty of the dairyman. But 

 experience has shown that even the greatest honesty 

 on the part of the dairyman and his skill in steriliz- 

 ing is not in all cases sufficient to insure an untainted 

 milk to an infant, because all precautions are futile if 

 the sterilized milk, prior to its consumption, is left to 

 the manipulation of careless and unreliable persons. 



This is one of the reasons why infants' milk should 

 be furnished in hermetically closed small bottles of a 



