GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 11 



is keenly eager to -establish sanitary reforms at once.* The 

 hard knocks of experience, however, soon teach him that 

 he must make haste slowly. The aggressive health officer 

 who is a natural leader and can command a following is 

 a blessing for any community. The most efficient health 

 officers are those who apply the teachings of science in a sys- 

 tematic and practical manner and who insistently and per- 

 sistently improve the sanitary conditions of their districts 

 and then help the people to help themselves. This is the sort 

 of efficiency that is needed to help solve the milk question. 



The dangers from milk and water contrasted 



The great difference between milk and water from a 

 sanitary standpoint is that bacteria tend to die in water 

 whereas they grow well in milk. It is well known that 

 water has a tendency to purify itself. Running streams 

 become cleaner. Thus the Mississippi River, after draining 

 thousands of miles of inhabited territory, and receiving the 

 sewage of several million people, is relatively pure as it 

 flows by the doors of New Orleans. The storage of water 

 in ponds, lakes, or reservoirs, where in time the harmful 

 bacteria die, is one of nature's sanitary safeguards. 



It is otherwise with milk. Bacteria grow even more 

 quickly in milk than they do in the body. Typhoid and 

 diphtheria bacilli multiply at prodigious rates. Under ordin- 

 ary circumstances the tubercle bacillus probably does not 

 multiply in milk, but will remain active and virulent for 

 months. Streptococci and other harmful varieties increase 

 manyfold in a few hours. 



Dilution, sunshine, aeration, sedimentation, and other 

 factors, which are unfavorable to germ life in water, have 

 no chance in milk. Clean water does not furnish sufficient 

 food even for the humble germs. Milk, on the other hand, 

 is a rich culture medium. Therefore, whereas a little infec- 

 tion may be lost, diluted, or soon disappear in water, a little 

 infection in milk may increase and seriously contaminate a 



