34 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN STUDIES 



is the recognition of the fact that milk is the most available 

 source of certain substances indispensable to the growth of 

 the young and the well being of the adult. Much of the 

 study of these important, compounds designated as "fat 

 soluble a ' ' and ' ' water soluble b ' ' has been conducted at Wis- 

 consin. 14 The nutritive importance of these compounds is 

 emphasized by the fact that recent studies of pellagra make 

 it evident that milk is practically a specific for this disease. 1 " 

 Pellagra in this country in a single year is variously estimated 

 at between 150,000 and 200,000 cases, with a mortality of ap- 

 proximately 5 per cent. These figures suggest that there is 

 more disease and death in this country every year from the 

 failure to use sufficient milk than results from the use of bad 

 inilk. While this fact should not militate against all reason- 

 able efforts to improve the quality of the present milk supply, 

 it should lead to vigorous efforts to increase the consumption 

 of fluid milk. 



THE PROBLEM OF HEALTHFULNESS 



Healthf ulness as here applied to milk refers to the absence 

 of germs capable of transmitting specific diseases. 



The early objections to watering and skimming of milk 

 were based in part upon the supposition that such practices 

 rendered the milk unhealthful. When carried to such lengths 

 as to reduce the amount of food received by the child below 

 a maintenance ration this conception is in a sense correct. 

 However, in modern thinking these practices are objected to 

 rather as a fraud in that they reduce the food value which 

 the purchaser receives. 



Tuberculin as a means of diagnosing bovine tuberculosis 

 was just beginning to be tried in 1893. A test of the Wisconsin 

 Experiment Station herd showed it to be largely tuberculous. 

 Dr. Russell immediately took an important part in the strug- 



14 E. V. McCollum, The Newer Knoivledge of Nutrition, MacMillan, 1918. 



15 J. Goldberger, G. A. Wheeler and E. Sydenstricker, A Study of the 

 Diet of Nonpelagrous and of Pelagrous Households in Textile Mill Com- 

 munities in South Carolina in Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., 71, pp. 944-949, 



1918. 



