344 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



40. The average from 1891 to 1896 was 29, against 47, the 

 average from 1851 to 1855. But the fact remains that tuber- 

 culosis is still the most fatal disease among us. It kills its 

 hundreds where other well-known diseases kill their tens ; 

 and the fact that it is decreasing should not preclude still 

 further efforts along the line of precaution and prevention. 



We desire to urge with emphasis that there is truth in both 

 sides of the contentions of the last few years. But we be- 

 lieve that, with all that can be said against it, milk is rela- 

 tively one of the most healthful foods there is, a great boon 

 to the human race, and a food product which should be con- 

 sumed in much larger quantities than at present. We be- 

 lieve that, especially in the large cities, more people suffer 

 from the want of it than from its use. At the same time, 

 there is an element of danger in it, just as there is an ele- 

 ment of danger in grade crossings, in exposed electric wires 

 and thousands of other things. 



Science is making progress in showing us how to reduce 

 these dangers ; in surgery, the deaths have been wonderfully 

 reduced during the past few years. The studious investi- 

 gators and the intelligent producers of milk should work 

 together, each counteracting any tendency of the other to 

 excess, and thus bringing about true and healthy progress. 

 There should be a hearty co-operation between conservative 

 scientists and enterprising producers. The scientist should 

 tell the truth, carefully and calmly, and in the correct per- 

 spective, with needed explanations and qualifications. The 

 producer ought to have a receptive mind, eager to learn, and 

 anxious to take every reasonable precaution to produce a 

 harmless product. The lives of weak infants or debilitated 

 invalids may be in his keeping. He should realize the full 

 extent of his responsibility. 



A gentleman once said to me that he considered the 

 charges about the possible dangers from milk as wholly false, 

 and a scare got up by selfish men for selfish purposes. My 

 reply was an illustration from my own family. One member, 

 perfectly healthy in every way, so far as could be ascertained, 

 drank milk freely and with impunity, without thought or care 

 of the result. Another, in feeble health, the object of much 

 solicitude, was not allowed to drink milk until it had been 



