108 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



unproved assumptions and unsatisfactory evidence. 

 The recent reported increase of cases of mild scurvy 

 or similar nutritional disease among infants in New 

 York City as a result of the greater use of pasteurized 

 milk cannot, even if fully substantiated, justly be used 

 as an argument against the process, the remedy being 

 merely a little orange juice, or other antiscorbutic, in the 

 diet of the infant. To give over a great means of safety 

 on account of a minor disadvantage would be absurd. 

 Special medical requirements may, if necessary, be met 

 by permitting the sale of the highest grade of raw 

 milk, as is recommended by the Commission on Milk 

 Standards. 



The pendulum of medical opinion appears now to be 

 swinging in the direction of favoring even boiled milk. 

 The scalding of milk as a domestic precaution previous 

 to infant feeding and other uses has long been a com- 

 mon practice in certain European countries, and the 

 American prejudice against the practice seems now to 

 be dying out in the absence of dependable evidence 

 regarding scurvy and rickets supposedly caused by 

 heated milk. 27 



Other objections deal, not with the scientific process, 

 but with possible abuses in its application; such objec- 

 tions should properly be taken merely as cautions. 

 Thus, it is true that pasteurization and repasteuriza- 

 tion may be used by unscrupulous dealers as a cloak 

 for bad milk, that milk may be sold for pasteurized 

 which has not been adequately treated, that the adop- 

 tion of pasteurization ordinances does not necessarily 

 mean their proper enforcement. But these are all 

 simply questions of supervision. It is, of course, neces- 



