284 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



tion begets a sense of false security on the part of the consumer, that he 

 comes to believe that since the milk has been pasteurized it is absolutely 

 safe and will remain so in his hands. Exuberant advertising has perhaps 

 had some tendency to lead the public to trust pasteurized milk too 

 implicitly but in general the faith placed in pasteurized milk is warranted 

 and much good results from allaying the mistrust of anxious mothers 

 that sickness may be lurking in the milk they are feeding their children. 

 Pasteurization and the Score Card. About 1908 the tide of criticism 

 that had been running against pasteurization began to subside and now 

 the process has emerged and stands well-favored. Many factors 

 brought about the change but seven were particularly important. 



1. The so-called official score card began to be widely used and to prove 

 itself a helpful corrective of the dirty dairies and insanitary methods it 

 was so greatly feared pasteurization would perpetuate. The score card 

 and pasteurization work together nicely, the one impels the dairy farmer 

 to produce milk in a clean place and in a sanitary manner and the other 

 enhances the keeping quality of the milk so produced and reduces the 

 chances of contracting contagion from it almost to the vanishing point. 



2. Milk Liable to Bovine Infection. Sanitarians finally realized that 

 the cow is very subject to certain diseases which infect the milk with their 

 germs. Furthermore, they found that in some of the infectious diseases 

 of man, the ambulatory cases and bacillus carriers were more common and 

 more potent factors in the spread of contagion than had been believed 

 and that the operation of these infectious agents was so insidious that it 

 was apparent that even those dairymen who were doing their utmost to 

 protect their milk from infection would at times fail in their efforts. 



The germ diseases of the cow which are so common as to have an im- 

 portant bearing on the pasteurization problem are tuberculosis, contagious 

 abortion and certain forms of mammitis. As it became known how prev- 

 alent bovine tuberculosis is, in the herds of dairy districts where the chief 

 business is supplying the city milk trade, and as it came to be understood 

 that it would be years before the disease could be eradicated, it was seen 

 that pasteurization would greatly minimize the danger that children ran 

 in drinking milk. The germs of contagious abortion are common in mar- 

 ket milk; so far as known they are not pathogenic for man but Schroeder 

 has pointed out that on general principles it is not well for one race to be 

 constantly exposed to germs that are pathogenic for another so that, if this 

 view is accepted, an additional reason for pasteurizing milk for human 

 consumption is found. Both bovine tuberculosis and contagious abor- 

 tion inflict much loss on the owners of farm animals and as the germs of 

 these diseases are found in skim-milk and whey from creameries and 

 cheese factories these products should be pasteurized before being returned 

 to the farm. 



Septic sore throat powerfully influenced sanitarians to accept pasteur- 



