216 Dairy Bacteriology. 



If the milk is bottled after pasteurization, there re- 

 mains opportunity for reinfection, possibly with ty- 

 phoid bacilli. Pasteurization in the final container, the 

 bottle, is being recommended. This is possible only 

 when a special bottle is used with a metal cap lined with 

 paper. 



Milk distribution. Until within recent years in the 

 cities and at present in smaller towns, milk is largely re- 

 tailed from cans which are carried on the wagons or are 

 kept in stores. This exposes the milk to contamination 

 from street dust and from the container furnished by 

 the consumer. It is well recognized that every utensil 

 with which milk is brought in contact adds more or less 

 bacteria to it, and the less milk is handled, the better 

 will be its condition when it reaches the consumer. 

 Milk is now largely retailed in glass bottles which are 

 closed with pulp caps. In some cities the bottling is 

 mainly done in the country at the bottling station to 

 which the milk is brought by the farmers ; or it may be 

 shipped by the producer to a distributing company, and 

 all subsequent treatment, as pasteurization and bottling 

 done in the city. 



Milk plants are now generally equipped for the rapid 

 and economical handling of large quantities of milk in 

 a most ' sanitary manner. The bottles as they are re- 

 turned from the consumer are washed in a continuously- 

 acting automatic washer which washes, rinses and steril- 

 izes the bottles without their being removed from the 

 cases in which they are carried on the wagons. These 

 machines are effective, if not run at too rapid a rate, so 

 that the bottles are not exposed for a sufficiently long 

 period of time to sterilize them. The bottles are then 

 filled and the paper caps inserted by machinery. The 



