204 MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 



'The antiquated, fetish-like arguments against pasteurization, like 

 floating corks, keep bobbing above the surface ; but pasteurization has come 

 to stay, and its success in everyday practice, year after year, and in the 

 case of thousands upon thousands, yea, hundreds of thousands of infants 

 whose lives have been saved by it, should quiet all hostile arguments.' " 



TESTIMONY OF MR. J. H. LARSON 



MR. J. H. LARSON, Secretary of the New York Milk Committee, 

 appeared as a witness for the Survey at a hearing held in the City Hall, 

 Rochester, on September 16, 1919, and testified on the subject of pas- 

 teurization as follows : 



Q. Now, Mr. Larson, your work as Secretary of the New York 

 Committe has made it necessary for you to keep in touch with the gen- 

 eral milk problem in other cities of the United States, has it not ? 



A. We very often receive requests for co-operation or for sug- 

 gestions for milk control. 



Q. But in a general way do you make it your business to keep 

 posted as to the progress in milk improvement in other cities of the 

 United States and Canada ? 



A. We make it a business to take an interest in them. We do not 

 keep an actual tabulation of facts. 



Q. During the period you have been employed by the Milk Com- 

 mittee do you know whether or not there has been a tendency on the 

 part of cities in the United States and Canada to adopt pasteurization of 

 milk? 



A. Yes, there has been. 



Q. Do you think it is a good thing for any city to make pasteuriza- 

 tion compulsory? 



A. I believe it is. 



Q. You believe it is? 



A. Yes. 



Q. Do you think that it adds to the safety of milk to pasteurize it? 



A. Yes, I believe it does. 



Q. Do you think that raw milk is not sufficiently safe without pas- 

 teurization ? 



A. Milk, though it is the best food we have, is also the best medium 

 we have for carrying germs of infectious disease ; bacteria grow in milk, 

 and epidemics, typhoid, scarlet fever, sore throat, etc., all have been milk- 

 borne, and that I have taken a part in investigating. I cannot feel that 

 any raw milk is safe. 



Q. Will you mention one epidemic that you personally have in- 

 vestigated which makes you think that raw milk is unsafe ? 



A. Well, there was an epidemic at Cortland, New York. 



