MILK SUPPLY : OPENING ADDRESSES 161 



Commission may be very fruitful in their results. (Applause.) 

 I have a very pleasant surprise for you. In addition to the 

 programme which we have before us this morning, we have 

 with us here Dr. Herman Biggs, Medical Officer of New 

 York. That does not at all convey what Dr. Biggs is, what 

 his powers are, or what he has been able to do during his 

 term of office. He is also medical officer to the Board of 

 Health of New York and perhaps I may be 'allowed to 

 explain that that Board of Health consists of three in whose 

 hands lie very autocratic powers. The decrees of that 

 Board of Health become effective in a fortnight without 

 having to pass any legislative chamber, and Dr. Biggs is 

 the medical officer of that Board. If you ask him what 

 the decrees of the Board of Health have been regarding 

 milk in New York and what the decrease of the death-rate 

 has been in New York during the time he has held office, 

 you will get a better idea who Dr. Herman Biggs is. 



Dr. HERMAN BIGGS (New York) said he was glad to be 

 present at the Conference and at the request of the Countess 

 of Aberdeen to speak briefly on the system of the adminis- 

 trative control of the milk supply in New York City. About 

 fifteen years ago, in order to control better the supply of 

 milk, the Board of Health passed a series of regulations 

 requiring permits for all milk establishments and for all 

 vehicles importing milk. Those permits were renewed each 

 year. It was a misdemeanour to sell milk without a permit 

 of the Board. The permit could be revoked at any time 

 at any meeting of the Board. Soon afterwards a system 

 of milk inspection was established, beginning with the milk 

 trains and steamboats, and finally with the collecting stations 

 in the country, and also at the dairies. It would give them 

 some idea of what the system of inspection must mean 

 when he told them that the milk supply of New York now 

 comprised about two million quarts a day derived from 

 six or seven different States and coming in some instances 

 as far as 400 miles. In the beginning they had a good deal 

 of difficulty with the transhipment companies. They found 

 that some of the worst milk coming into New York came 

 from districts very near the city, in some instances only 

 fifty or sixty miles from the city. All their milk was at 

 least twenty-four hours old before it reached the city and 

 most of it was thirty-six hours or more when it reached 

 them. Of course, it therefore became necessary to use 

 artificial means for refrigeration. Some of the milk which 

 came short distances forty or fifty miles they found was 

 put into cars in the afternoon of a hot summer's day when 

 the temperature in the car was 73 or 80 or more; it 



