132 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



material lowering of the infant death rate." A return published 

 shows that, while in 1910 the death rate in respect of children within 

 their first year was 157 to 1,000, by 1917 it had sunk to 81. 



As — not, indeed, a perfect, but under the circumstances the best 

 available — means of preserving the milk so kept hygienic in its 

 healthy state, " score cards " are issued, on which, after inspection, 

 marks are noted down for the various safeguards prescribed — con- 

 stituting, as already stated, a considerable number. The maximum 

 number of such marks attainable is 100, of which 40 are apportioned 

 to " equipment " and 60 to " method " or " handling." " Grade C," 

 which is now nowhere allowed — except in rural districts, from which 

 it cannot be excluded — must score a minimum of 40 points so 

 ascertained (but on both counts) ; " Grade B," which is now 

 allowed to be sold unpasteurised under certain restrictions, in New 

 York, a minimum of 60 (if pasteurised, only 55) ; and " Grade A," 

 a minimum of 75, which the city of New York has for its own 

 district raised to 93. The testing has told upon the number of 

 dairies keeping in business. In the Toronto district, where similar 

 methods are employed, the number has gone down from 232 to 

 100. For " Grade A," in New York, each cow has to be subjected 

 once a year to the tuberculosis test ; for " Grade B " only to the 

 annual physical examination. Pasteurisation, so it has been found, 

 will reduce the number of bacteria from 100,000 or upwards up to 

 1,000,000, to from 10,000 to 30,000 only, the latter number being 

 the maximum figure allowed. 



Recent investigation has shown a more perfect method to be 

 practicable, which has now in New York city superseded the old 

 method, and which has been found to answer fairly well. Under 

 this newer method the bacterial count, which, says Dr. Thau, 

 : ' if a milk producer does not follow out the principles laid down, 

 will find him out immediately," plays the dominant part. 



Of course, the " bacterial count " does not do away with the much 

 easier safeguards to keep out simple dirt. The disconcerting dis- 

 covery was made that to a not inconsiderable extent the theory 

 upon which the system — which we at present appear to be disposed 

 to copy with almost excessive fidelity — is based was built up on 

 wrong premises ; above all things, that the " bacterial count," 

 which had been accepted as the determining factor, is a wholly 

 untrustworthy guide. Milk, so it was ascertained in the course 

 of researches instituted by bacteriologists in the two experimental 

 stations foremost in their activity, of Geneva and Ithaca (both in 

 the United States), might be full of bacteria and yet perfectly sound 



