NEW YORK MILK COMMITTEE 117 



produced and sold in cities. That is the case with all of them, 

 with reference to disease. 



Now, we have got a means in our hands to get rid of these 

 disease germs in milk. Make it all certified milk, if you can, 

 but you cannot do that. People are not going to pay fifteen 

 cents and twenty-five cents a quart for milk. They do not 

 realize the necessity for it, and you have got to do something 

 for them. They do not realize it, but you can prove to them 

 that the bacteria are the infected agents. Fortunately for us, 

 the organisms that are the most harmful, and most likely to 

 be milk borne, are the organisms that can be killed when the 

 milk is treated to a comparatively low temperature. All ex- 

 cept the spore bearing organisms can be killed at a compara- 

 tively low temperature. Investigators are commencing to 

 see now that pasteurization will do that. Heat the milk to 

 140 degrees Farenheit and keep it at that temperature for a 

 short time. You can kill them at a higher temperature in a 

 very short time perhaps in three quarters of a minute, but 

 there are too many risks to do that. It may let a quarter of 

 them go through without being sterilized or without being pas- 

 teurized or without having the organisms killed. The milk 

 should be kept for some time at that temperature. It should 

 be held there and the holding machine is the means that should 

 .be recommended. You know how difficult it is to employ men 

 who are going to be reliable at all times, so the machine should 

 be recommended. Get the milk in as clean a condition as 

 can be. Inspect it, watch it, see that it comes into the City as 

 cold as it can be kept, that it has been kept cold from the time 

 it left the farm. See that it is gathered in as clean a con- 

 dition as possible, and so carried to the City, and pasteur- 

 ized by being brought up to the proper temperature. 



Now, many object to that. They say, "Well, you can con- 

 trol tuberculosis," but if you do not do that, you take away 

 the power of controlling tuberculosis. They will tell you, too, 

 that the most important thing is that it will encourage dirty 

 milk, and that it will stop investigation, but it does not neces- 

 sarily do that. 



Centrifuge it to get all the dirt that you can out of it. 

 Heat it, and then they will say that you have spoiled its food 

 value. I asked a superintendent of a hospital here in the City 



