144 THE MILK QUESTION 



tion, and no stone should be left unturned until the word 

 "certified" is as clean as the product itself. 



Historical. In the year 1893, after several years of labor, 

 Dr. Henry L. Coit, of Newark, induced the State Medical 

 Society of New Jersey to appoint the Essex County Medi- 

 cal Milk Commission. Some months later a dairyman by 

 the name of Stephen Francisco signed a contract with this 

 commission to produce milk under its supervision, and thus 

 the first certified dairy plant was established. The term 

 "certified" was coined by Dr. Coit and copyrighted by 

 Mr. Francisco, in order to protect it against abuse and with 

 the understanding that any properly qualified milk com- 

 mission should have the right to its use. The term "cer- 

 tified milk," therefore, simply means that the milk is certi- 

 fied as to quality and wholesomeness by a medical milk 

 commission. 



The standards of the first medical milk commission were 

 high, but have since gradually been raised and the super- 

 vision over the production and handling of the milk has 

 been made more definite. The idea took hold slowly, but 

 surely, and in the fourteen years following 1893, largely 

 through the assistance of Dr. Coit, some twelve other milk 

 commissions were organized in various cities throughout 

 the country. Upon the invitation of Dr. Geier, of Cincin- 

 nati, representatives from these twelve commissions met 

 June 3, 1907, at Atlantic City and organized the American 

 Association of Medical Milk Commissions. After that 

 time a marked impetus was given to the certified milk 

 movement, so that at the present writing there are some 

 sixty medical milk commissions prepared to certify milk 

 in the United States. 



The purpose of the American Association of Medical 

 Milk Commissions is to federate and bring into one com- 

 pact association the medical milk commissions of the 

 United States, to exchange views, to adopt uniform meth- 

 ods of procedure, to fix chemical and bacteriological stand-. 



