110 THE MILK QUESTION 



ion the public interest may require, permit, by resolution, the 

 sale of milk that is produced under conditions other than as herein 

 specified, provided that such milk is pasteurized by subjecting 

 it to a temperature of 150 F. for twenty minutes, or by an 

 equivalent process. 



No cream shall be sold, exposed for sale, or delivered within 

 the Town of Montclair, unless it is produced and handled in 

 accordance with the requirements hereinbefore set forth for the 

 production and sale of milk. 



One of the arguments was that the Sanitary Code of 

 Montclair makes the right to sell milk dependent not upon 

 the fact of the existence of disease in the cow, but upon the 

 result of a specific method of diagnosis the use of the 

 tuberculin test. The court found that the tuberculin test 

 is the most reliable method of diagnosis in cattle now 

 known; and while it is not perfect, the percentage of error 

 is as small as any method suggested; and that it is more 

 accurate than the method of physical examination. The 

 court reached this conclusion not merely upon the testi- 

 mony in the case, but upon the fact that it has been 

 approved by judicial decisions in Minnesota, Louisiana, 

 Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. 



Further, the tuberculin test has been adopted by recent 

 statute in Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minne- 

 sota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, 

 South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin, 

 and for some purposes by Maine, Massachusetts, and 

 Vermont. The tuberculin test is also referred to in the 

 Acts of South Dakota and New Jersey. 



These statutes are legislative testimony, of cumulative 

 force, to the value of the tuberculin test as a diagnostic 

 agent. The court, therefore, considered that the board of 

 health is justified in the position that cattle which react 

 to the tuberculin test are diseased. It was recognized that 

 such a conclusion may occasionally be erroneous, but it is 

 as nearly accurate as is possible. 



