THE MILK CONTRACTOR 311 



city milk business, taking the country by and large, probably more plants 

 are using the flash process but the health codes of the largest cities and 

 of the most progressive large and small ones require the use of the holder 

 process. It is slowly and steadily superseding the flash method and will 

 probably ultimately come to be the only process applied to pasteurizing 

 milk for direct consumption. 



There are two reasons for the existence of so many plants of the flash 

 type, namely: (1) that in regions where pasteurization is being newly 

 introduced and without restrictions imposed by boards of health it is apt 

 to be selected because the first cost of installation is often considerably 

 less than for the holder process; and (2) in many places the flash process 

 is used merely because it was installed before the holder process was 

 developed and its merits appreciated. 



Future of Pasteurization. With regard to the future of pasteurization 

 it may be confidently predicted that all of the cities of the United States 

 that are able to afford pasteurizing plants will adopt them as necessary 

 instruments to cope with the milk problem. Three reasons assure this, 

 namely: (1) in the present state of preventive medicine it is the only way 

 to protect the milk- consuming public from the dangers of chance infection 

 to which even the best of milk is liable; (2) the expense of maintaining a 

 close inspection of distant and widely scattered dairy farms is prohibitive 

 and in fact none of the large cities or various State boards charged with 

 such work pretend to carry on such inspection ; and (3) it is an economic 

 necessity to pasteurize milk in order to prevent great loss ensuing from 

 the growth of large numbers of microorganisms therein. While this wide 

 use of pasteurization is bound to come, it is nevertheless true that there 

 is some danger that the friends of the process may injure its good reputa- 

 tion. Pasteurized milk should be sold for exactly what it is and pasteur- 

 ization should neither be touted as a cure-all nor represented as making 

 milk absolutely safe. Pasteurized milk should be plainly labeled such 

 and the label should state the date, time and temperature of pasteuriza- 

 tion. In some quarters there seems to be a tendency to try to persuade 

 that pasteurization may be safely accepted in lieu of dairy inspection 

 and as guaranteeing absolute protection from tuberculosis. Dairy in- 

 spection has its place for the health officer certainly ought to know where 

 the milk that is served within his jurisdiction comes from and to be 

 familiar with the farm and farmers who are producing it and also with 

 the methods used in handling it. Without this knowledge it is doubtful 

 if the health code can be either intelligently framed or administered and 

 dairy practice is more likely to become woefully slack rather than to 

 keep abreast of the times. In combating tuberculosis pasteurization is 

 a valuable weapon; it all but prevents children from contracting the dis- 

 ease from milk and if used intelligently in connection with tuberculin 

 testing helps to eradicate the disease at a minimum cost, but to preach 



