NEW YORK MILK COMMITTEE 121 



It is relatively easy, however, through proper veterinary 

 inspection to eliminate from the herds those animals that con- 

 stantly secrete milk containing harmful bacteria. 



Our knowledge of the potentiality for harm of bacillus-car- 

 riers and the large number of persons who come into contact 

 with milk, taken with the elusiveness of certain infections such 

 as scarlet fever which sometimes in milk, make it a much more 

 difficult problem to be sure of the absence of infections which 

 have their origin in man. Intermittent and irregular infection 

 of milk, as by a bacillus-carrier, would be almost impossible to 

 detect by laboratory examination, while it would be relatively 

 easy to discover such sources of infection by an efficient and 

 systematic inspection service. 



The fact that such conditions are not revealed by laboratory 

 examinations is the secret of the lack of complete success in 

 the control of the milk supply from the laboratory standpoint. 



This fact, however, should not deter us from making labora- 

 tory examinations of milk and the establishment and enforce- 

 ment of bacterial standards, for it is well known that in milk 

 with primarily small numbers of bacteria a great increase in its 

 bacterial content will take place unless it be kept under proper 

 conditions as to temperature, etc. ; and milk containing large 

 numbers of bacteria, even without the specific infections, has 

 been shown by clinicians to be harmful to children using the 

 same. 



Having learned that a relation existed between the number 

 of bacteria in milk and the conditions under which it was 

 produced and marketed, it was but a step to formulate bac- 

 teriological standards as a means of safeguarding the milk 

 supply. 



The first attempt to adopt a quantitative bacterial standard 

 for market milk was made by New York City in 1900 by the 

 adoption of a maximum count of 1,000,000 bacteria per cubic 

 centimeter; but on account of the complexity of the milk sit- 

 uation in that city, it was found practically impossible to en- 

 force such a standard. 



The education of dairymen throughout the country in re- 

 gard to the importance of the use of proper methods in the 

 production of milk has reached such a state that quite a num- 

 ber of cities have found it possible to establish, and enforce 



