170 ESSENTIALS OF VETERINARY LAW 



city of New York, of milk not produced by him 

 under conditions specified by the department. It 

 had the right to exact from all shippers of milk 

 a compliance with such conditions as would rea- 

 sonably tend to a pure product for the use of the 

 citizens as a condition for permitting its sale in 

 the city of New York. ' ' 



An ordinance forbidding the feeding of cattle 

 on distillery slops, and prohibiting the sale of the 

 milk of cattle so fed was upheld as a proper use 

 of police power.^^ 



Modem sociologic and commercial conditions 

 have very materially changed the relationship of 

 the milk industry to public health. Formerly the 

 milk was delivered to the customer within a few 

 hours at the most after milking; the cows were 

 generally within easy inspection by the customer; 

 and an infected pail of milk could endanger few 

 persons. Now the milk for our large cities must 

 be transported from large areas, often outside of 

 the state in which it is consumed. The customer 

 does not even know, as a rule, from what state his 

 supply comes. A pail of milk which is infected 

 at the milking may infect several carloads at a 

 bottling plant, and the time between milking and 

 delivery is such that there may be a great multi- 

 plication of a few bacteria. A strict supervision 

 of the industry is therefore an urgent govern- 

 mental responsibility. 



It is now generally recognized that bovine tuber- 

 culosis may be the cause of much of the disease 

 in the human being, though this was formerly 



16 Johnson v. Simonton, 43 

 Cal. 242. 



