NEW YORK MILK COMMITTEE 65 



I want to say something about some words which Commis- 

 sioner Evans used, which, if any here believe that bacteria are 

 spoken of too much, might lead them to think that he had 

 given them grounds for faith. He spoke about the very great 

 and harmful influence in milk, due to dirt, warmth, and stale- 

 ness. Now, I believe that he would agree absolutely with me 

 in saying that the dirt is harmful chiefly because the dirt car- 

 ries bacteria; that the warmth is harmful chiefly because the 

 warmth allows bacteria to multiply; and that the staleness is 

 harmful because the staleness gives time for the bacteria that 

 come in with the dirt and are growing with the warmth, to 

 grow to the full amount; and that, although he used words 

 other than "bacteria" the fact is that those three things are 

 the things that allow the bacteria to enter the milk and to de- 

 velop there. 



As I was coming down on the subway, I was trying to make 

 up my mind whether to give the first place to tuberculosis or 

 to typhoid fever, and I decided, as I thought it over, that un- 

 doubtedly typhoid fever came first and tuberculosis came sec- 

 ond. I was quite interested to see that the Commissioner, in 

 looking over the ground in Chicago, had come to the same con- 

 clusion ; namely, that typhoid comes first and tuberculosis 

 second, both coming after the infant mortality due to the bac- 

 teria from dirt, warmth and staleness. After the unanimity 

 with which the subject of bacteria in milk, so far as the infant 

 is concerned, has been spoken of here, it seems almost unnec- 

 essary to dwell upon that, and yet very recently I was talking 

 about infant mortality with one of the most intelligent workers 

 in infant diseases, and that person said that she believed it was 

 rather the warmth than the bacteria. And a great many chil- 

 dren's physicians and others interested in the subject believe 

 that, really, bacteria do not make much difference, but that it 

 is the warmth. I was really staggered to find that apparently 

 intelligent people should hold such an opinion. It seems to me 

 as strange as the opinions of those who feel that vaccination 

 is unnecessary and harmful. Now, believing that that which 

 is true of intelligent physicians may also be true of those here, 

 I want to speak about some experiences that I had several 

 years ago. The Rockefeller Institute allowed the Health De- 

 partment to spend quite a sum of money in this direction, and 



