60 CONFERENCE ON MILK PROBLEMS 



SO, 1906, is primarily of this character, and under its pro- 

 visions some steps have been taken to prevent adulteration and 

 misbranding. Under such laws it should be possible to main- 

 tain minimum standards with respect to the various constitu- 

 ents of milk, and to prevent the sale of milk containing dilu- 

 ents or preservatives. But important as it is to guarantee 

 to the consumer the proper food value of milk, and its freedom 

 from adulteration, these provisions must be regarded as being 

 primarily in the interest of commerce and "the square deal." 



If it were not for the public health questions involved, the 

 milk problem would be capable of early and easy solution. 

 But as it is, the absolute protection of public milk supplies 

 from contamination by infectious organisms is a well nigh im- 

 possible task. The physician is frequently made aware of the 

 dangers of milk that is filthy, and the sanitary officer is con- 

 stantly having his attention called to the dangers of milk as 

 an agent in the transmission of communicable diseases. In 

 my opinion, this is the most serious indictment brought against 

 milk, and one that must be met before it can be claimed that 

 there has been devised an efficient method of control in the in- 

 terest of the public health. 



It is not the intention to minimize those efforts that are 

 being made to secure clean milk. They should by all means be 

 continued and extended, but in endeavoring to perfect them, 

 we must not lose sight of the fact that safe milk is the real 

 necessity. The present measures are inadequate to insure 

 freedom from the infections of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, 

 diphtheria and scarlet fever in market milk. Fifteen out of 

 223 samples of market milk (or 6.72%) in tne cit J of Wash- 

 ington examined by Anderson contained tubercle bacilli viru- 

 lent for guinea pigs. And Trask has tabulated examinations 

 of 7097 samples of market milk of which 594* contained tuber- 

 cle bacilli. 



Of even greater importance is the contamination of milk 

 by typhoid bacilli. These organisms have been actually iso- 

 lated from market milk, and there have been no less than 320 

 typhoid epidemics reported as spread through this agency. 

 With approximately S50,000 cases of typhoid fever occurring 

 annually in the United States, and the disease being more 

 prevalent in proportion to the population in country districts, 



