182 ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION 



all milk, and consistently carried it on for twenty 

 years. 



The pure milk movement was a halting one for 

 more than a decade, when it began to receive renewed 

 attention, due to continued high infant mortality rates 

 and to outbreaks of communicable diseases traced to 

 milk. The excessive prevalence also of bovine tuber- 

 culosis had become better known through the activities 

 of the Federal and State Governments. The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture had for years conducted investi- 

 gations, and prepared and distributed tuberculin to 

 dairymen for diagnostic purposes, and the dangerous 

 but unsuspected tuberculous cow was thus being 

 exposed. There was a growing appreciation that 

 something had to be done. 



In consequence, meetings were held here and 

 there to consider sanitation of milk supplies, milk 

 commissions were formed, infants' milk depots were 

 opened, literature on milk was distributed, and milk 

 shows were held in many places. People were begin- 

 ning to rebel against dirty milk, and to inquire into 

 the safety of raw milk, and this was being led by 

 progressive health authorities and others interested. 



Accordingly, many laws and ordinances were 

 amended or new ones passed, and new requirements 

 put in force. The inspection and scoring of herds 

 and dairies became more general, systems of permits 

 were adopted, and licensing of dairymen became the 

 practice. The testing of milk for temperature and 

 bacterial content was begun and extended. 



Milk inspection beginning at the farm was in- 

 augurated by the authorities of the District of 

 Columbia in 1895, an< ^ during the same year the 

 tuberculin test was inaugurated in a small way in the 

 same jurisdiction. By 1903 in New York an ordin- 

 ance required the cooling of milk to 50, and during 

 that year the city of Boston adopted a maximum 

 bacterial standard of 500,000 per c.c. for milk sold in 



