148 PROTECTION OF THE CONSUMER. 



conviction must depend simply upon an individual inspector's 

 word that the conditions in the dairy are uncleanly. For all 

 of these reasons it has not hitherto seemed feasible to adopt a 

 public dairy inspection backed up by public law. 



Nevertheless, public milk inspectors in our cities have 

 accomplished a great deal in the last few years in the way of 

 improving the quality of the milk. This has been done partly 

 by enforcing laws, and partly by advisory suggestions. The 

 chemical purity of the milk has been raised, until now there 

 is not very much to be desired in this respect, and, along with 

 the increased chemical purity, there has been a general recog- 

 nition on the part of milk producers and distributors that the 

 milk must be more carefully treated. Indirectly this has pro- 

 duced a greater cleanliness and a greater care. Moreover, in 

 many cases the regulations which have been adopted have 

 tended directly toward increasing the precautions under 

 which the milk is distributed. 



The rules and regulations in the European cities are, in 

 these respects, considerably ahead of those in America and 

 are somewhat more stringent. They are under the control of 

 the public officers and are enforced with more or less strict- 

 ness. These rules for milk production and distribution 

 vary much in different localities: differ in strictness and 

 in details in different cities. But they all have a general 

 similarity, and in nearly all of the cities, where such regu- 

 lations have been adopted, the directions that are given take 

 into consideration a variety of factors which are closely con- 

 nected with the purity and the quality of the milk supply. 1 

 They give attention to the following factors : 



Chemical Standard. There is almost universally put in 

 force, with more or less rigidness, a series of rules as to the 

 chemical standard of milk for public distribution. There 

 are, however, quite generally recognized at least three differ- 



1 The regulations adopted in many European cities may be found in 

 the last five years of the Zeitschrift fur Fleisch und Milch Hygiene. 



