MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 163 



infections; that is, infection of the intestinal tract or respiratory tract, 

 so that organisms from the cow, either from the intestinal end which is 

 the. more frequent line of communication between the milk and home 

 or the respiratory end, might get into the milk ; so we instituted our new 

 guinea pig test. We had numbers of animals and we took milk from the. 

 different herds in the country and injected these animals. When we found 

 any of the animals afflicted with tuberculosis, we had a physical examina- 

 tion made of the herd. That physical examination together with the ani- 

 mal test, was a sufficient test to determine a very considerable number of 

 herds of cattle that were profoundly tuberculous. Twenty per cent, of 

 all the cattle we tested were found to be tuberculous. We were getting 

 on swimmingly. Volunteers were coming forward to have their cows 

 tested. Then we came to a standstill because of, the large milk companies 

 and the objection the large milk companies made was, in substance, that 

 we were interfering with their business and it did not pay to do this 

 work. They had no interest in children. They were simply interested in 

 business. We had to stop. I think we had several hundred cattle killed 

 that were profoundly tuberculous. We had certificates coming in to us 

 from veterinary surgeons certifying to the fact that a herd of forty or 

 fifty or seventy or eighty cows is absolutely free from tuberculosis, and 

 we tested out the herd and found twenty of them were profoundly tuber- 

 culous. W r e very clearly understand that you cannot have absolutely 

 clean milk. You do not get absolutely clean milk when you get certified 

 milk. You do not get absolutely disease free meat unless you want to pay 

 five dollars a pound for it, and you cannot afford to pay that. You want 

 relatively clean milk and you want relatively disease free meat. 



"In reference to this work, there is still another factor I want to 

 speak of. That is the attitude of the milk commission. The milk com- 

 mission, as I have said before, has inter f erred with our work more than 

 all the milk men." 



Q. What milk commission? 



A. I mean the Monroe County Milk Commission, the certified milk 

 commission. When we organized the Milk Commission, we assumed 

 that a large part of the work of the Milk Commission was going to be 

 such as would raise the character of all the milk in Rochester instead of 

 trying to improve a few two or three hundred quarts of milk from what 

 it was in the earlier days for the benefit of people who can afford to pay 

 for it. What did they do ? They improved the quality of a few hundred 

 quarts of milk and then turned the work over to the large companies, and 

 through the large companies they gave to the people of Rochester the 

 idea that being the product of the large companies, it was equivalent to 

 certified milk, and it wasn't. . ! 



