88 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



consultation, and the encouragement of breast-feeding 

 are now the chief lines of the best milk-station work. 

 In short, the doctor and the nurse, rather than milk 

 supply (important as this is), are the chief force of the 

 infant welfare station. 



Milk stations have served, and do serve, an impor- 

 tant purpose in providing at cost or less a special grade 

 of milk for infant feeding. Countless babies have 

 thriven through the efforts of these agencies when safe 

 market milk could not be obtained except at a pro- 

 hibitive cost, and when a poor grade of " loose" or 

 store milk swarming with bacteria would often have 

 been used. Such distribution of milk is not, however, 

 a cure-all. Even in the districts where milk stations 

 exist, many of the families most in need of good milk 

 will rely on the ordinary market supplies. There are, 

 moreover, the families of the middle classes, which 

 may not get much better milk than the tenements, and 

 which cannot afford certified milk, but which would 

 not readily be drawn to milk stations even were they 

 generally available. 



One of the chief objects of adequate milk control is to 

 bring into the general market, at a moderate price, a 

 recognized grade of milk suitable for infant feeding. Such 

 milk could be sold both from wagons and from strictly 

 supervised stores, in the latter case, perhaps, at a 

 lower price. The accomplishment of this will be the 

 complete attainment of a general object which is now 

 attained only partly though in regard to the most 

 pressing need through milk stations. The latter, on 

 the other hand, will be freer to exercise the larger, more 

 important educational function of the modern infant 



