94 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



bacterial fermentation or decomposition, has an ac- 

 cepted value together with the merit of simplicity hi 

 routine milk examination.* 



Standards f for total count of bacteria have been 

 adopted by many municipalities; in fact such a stand- 

 ard or rather, maximum for market milk has been 

 considered the necessary basis for administrative use 

 of the counts. The first bacteriological standard in 

 the United States was adopted by the New York City 

 Board of Health, which in 1900 set a limit of 1,000,000 

 bacteria per cubic centimeter, which, however, it was 

 found at that time impossible to enforce. Boston 

 adopted in 1905 a legal limit of 500,000, the figure 

 which is still its standard for all market milk. The 

 United States Public Health Service 18 has ascertained 

 the limits which have been established by some 150 

 cities of 10,000 population or over. These range from 



* An important study of the technique of the bacteriological deter- 

 mination of the total count, based on a co-operative test by four of the 

 large laboratories in New York City, has recently been published. 

 (Conn, H. W., " Standards for determining the purity of milk: the limit 

 of error in bacteriological milk analyses," Reprint 295 from Public 

 Health Reports, Aug. 13, 1915.) 



This paper finds defects in technique under present standard methods 

 but concludes that these methods are sufficiently accurate to warrant 

 the grades recommended by the Commission on Milk Standards (Ap- 

 pendix B). In routine bacteriological milk analyses the Standard 

 Methods of the American Public Health Association, as amended from 

 time to time should be exactly followed. A new report by the Com- 

 mittee on these methods was presented at the 1916 meeting of the 

 Association and a revised edition of the Methods has been published. 



f This use of the term " standard" is unfortunate in that it implies 

 an average acceptable quality if not something better. Exactly stand- 

 ard milk would, of course, be barely within the limit of the law and 

 hence of the poorest salable quality. "Legal limit" is a better 

 term. 



