CLEAN MILK 161 



nature. Inspection, however, is in the air. It is bound to 

 come because it is necessary. We all need a little watching. 

 Supervision is a wholesome prod for the delinquencies of 

 human nature. 



Health officers all over the world find the conditions 

 under which milk is proojuced to be very unsatisfactory 

 and insist upon improvements. The only practical way so 

 far devised to enforce the sanitary requirements is through 

 a system of inspection. The farmer, therefore, may as well 

 submit, for inspection is inevitable. The only questions 

 before us, then, are who shall do the inspecting? how shall 

 it be done? what system shall be employed? what shall be 

 the qualifications of the inspector? how much authority 

 should be given him? is the inspection to be under govern- 

 ment, state, or local control? etc. 



Inspection brings us fresher milk, cleaner milk, and safer 

 milk, but it is difficult to conceive of any system of inspec- 

 tion that will supply us milk that will be free from infection 

 at all times. In other words, the greatest dangers hi milk 

 come from invisible foes. The inspector cannot see the 

 bacteria, he cannot detect bacillus carriers, and he cannot 

 be blamed for failing to recognize mild types of disease, 

 such as walking typhoid fever. While inspection is not an 

 ironclad safeguard, it does furnish a reasonable protection: 

 it insures cleaner and fresher milk; and a clean, fresh milk 

 is much less apt to carry trouble than stale, dirty, and 

 bacteria-laden milk. Because inspection has certain lim- 

 itations is no reason why it should not be enthusiastically 

 and vigorously indorsed by health officers and generously 

 supported by legislators. It is probable that over ninety 

 per cent of the ordinary troubles complained of in milk 

 could be avoided through a competent system of in- 

 spection. The extraordinary dangers can be cared for 

 through pasteurization. 



The question is sometimes asked, Why should we go to 

 the bother and expense of inspecting milk when pasteur- 



