THE MILK CONTRACTOR 251 



pec ted of the dairies that supply it, an inspector is justified in having all 

 apparatus taken apart for thorough inspection. The law should require 

 milk plants to be equipped with apparatus for sterilizing bottles ; so many 

 epidemics have been caused by infected milk bottles that there should be 

 no dallying with this question. Milk may be spoiled in the handling of it. 

 The temperature at which it arrives at the plant is important; the card 

 allows 3 points for milk below 50F. and less, for milk between this tem- 

 perature and 60 above which point nothing is given. The milk should be 

 handled rapidly. The cans of milk should not be permitted to stand long 

 on the receiving platforms or in the plant before mixing, pasteurizing, etc. 

 If the milk is not pasteurized directly after standardizing it should be held 

 in tanks jacketed with ice water or brine. Only the larger plants can 

 afford bacteriological laboratories but even the smaller ones can have 

 inspection of the dairies supplying the milk. 



Medical Inspection of the Employees. The importance of the attend- 

 ants is beginning to be appreciated. It is not enough that they be merely 

 good laborers; besides, they must have sound health, be clean and have 

 decent habits. The menace that those who handle food may be to the 

 public has only been recognized within the last decade for only within 

 that time has it been appreciated that ; walking cases of communicable 

 diseases are not rare, and the part played by bacillus carriers in spreading 

 infection has been understood. In New York City in 1915 a law was 

 enacted requiring that persons engaged in handling foods should hold a 

 certificate of health from the health department of the city. In the 

 medical examination of these persons several carriers were detected and 

 certificates were withheld from them. Other cities have adopted similar 

 laws and it is certain that as their importance becomes understood their 

 enactment will become general. 



The Bureau of Animal Industry in 1915 sent out 1,250 questionnaires 

 to the health officials of cities of the United States having a population of 

 5,000 or more and received replies from about one-half of them. To the 

 question 



"Do you require any systematic medical inspection of persons employed in 

 milk plants, creameries, cheese factories, ice-cream factories and condenseries?" 



46 replied yes and 473 no. A sick attendant may infect the milk by 

 sneezing into it, the fine spray of his sputum carrying the germs or he 

 may infect it with his fingers which if unclean may carry nasal, buccal, 

 urinary, or fecal discharges. Therefore, employees should be taught the 

 danger of droplet infection and of unclean hands. Those who from severe 

 colds or other causes are having violent coughing spells should be excused 

 from duty while any employee with a chronic cough should be subjected 

 to medical examination to make sure that he is not consumptive. The 

 work of Coues suggests that the laborers in milk plants are prone to develop 



