162 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



remained in the cars until the milk train came along in 

 the early evening and reached New York at one or two 

 o'clock in the morning. The temperature of the milk at 

 that time was often bo or 70. The milk came to the 

 grocery and other stores and they found that it contained 

 enormous numbers of micro-organisms, in some instances 

 as high as 200 and 300 millions per cubic centimetre. Orders 

 were issued first of all to the transport companies requiring 

 the refrigerating of the milk by icing or the use of refrigerat- 

 ing cars. Some of the companies refused to obey those 

 orders, saying that it was not the function of the Board 

 of Health to determine the conditions of transportation. 

 The Board replied in substance that it might not be their 

 function, but that it would insist that only milk which was 

 fit for human consumption should be delivered into New 

 York City, and they proceeded to reject several consign- 

 ments of milk as they came in. As the carriers were 

 responsible for this milk to the producers, that action had 

 the required effect and immediately provisions were made 

 by the transport companies for the refrigeration. Then the 

 inspection of the collecting stations in the country was 

 taken up and it was found that very bad conditions existed 

 in many of these. In one instance, for example, it was 

 found that a very large concern had its collecting station 

 equipped with all possible facilities for the adulteration and 

 sophistication of milk. It had colouring matter for cream, 

 gelatine for thickening the cream, and formaldehyde prepara- 

 tions for preservation, and every facility for the production 

 of adulterated milk. The milk in question was excluded at 

 once from New York. The company was called upon to 

 show cause why the permit for the sale of milk in New 

 York should not be revoked, and after three weeks the 

 permits of the company, which he might say was a very 

 large one, were revoked and the company was put out of 

 business. It had been in business in New York for twenty 

 years and it immediately started a suit against the city for 

 50,000 dollars damages. That suit was carried on in the 

 courts for several years and finally was discontinued and 

 the action of the Board was sustained. The result of that 

 was that when the inspectors of the Department of Health 

 went to the collecting stations in the country and made 

 suggestions to the proprietors in regard to changes and 

 other matters, they, were immediately complied with; in 

 some instances the agents of the company wrote to the 

 Department of Health even before the report of the in- 

 spector recommended the changes. He should say that the 

 Department had no power really to go into the country, 



