36 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



chemist and bacteriologist to supervisorily control the supply by con- 

 stant tests of quality and of cleanliness. The high standards set, in- 

 cluding restrictions as to the types of buildings, the cleanliness de- 

 manded in every step of production of the milk from the washing of 

 the udders of the cows to the sterilization of the utensils, the outlay 

 entailed, and the increase in running expenses, while having a mark- 

 edly beneficial effect on the whole dairy industry, is rather discourag- 

 ing, he observes, to the small producer of market milk: it all seems 

 so impossible to him, considering the small value placed on his prod- 

 uct. In conclusion, he asseverates that the public must be educated 

 to an appreciation of the value of these new conditions, which will 

 inevitably result in higher prices paid to the farmer and a general 

 advance in the cost of milk to the public. 



FEDERAL INVESTIGATIONS OF SANITARY MILK PRODUCTION. 



Although it is. conceded that milk, up to the moment that it leaves 

 the cow (except, perchance, through contamination from germs enter- 

 ing the teat from the outside), is not possibly contaminated with 

 diphtheria, typhoid, or scarlet fever bacilli, since cows are not sus- 

 ceptible to these diseases, milk is coming to be recognized more and 

 more as a most important factor in the spread of these diseases. In- 

 teresting charts illustrating the potency of milk as a medium for dis- 

 seminating these and other ailments are presented in Bulletin No. 56 

 of the Hygienic Laboratory of the Public Health and Marine-Hos- 

 pital Service. 1 This subject has been the basis for long-continued 

 and thorough investigation on the part of this branch of the Federal 

 service, several bulletins being devoted to publishing results regard- 

 ing the influence of milk in the transmission of typhoid fever, diph- 

 theria, scarlet fever, arid tuberculosis. 2 



Most valuable information concerning milk in its relation to the 

 public health has also resulted from the active, energetic work of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, the contents of whose important publications on the subject are 

 fully discussed in the pages of this report. 



FLIES A POTENT FACTOR IN CONTAMINATION OF MILK. 



A most important contributing factor in the contamination of 

 milk, and one which has, until the past few years, been almost uni- 

 versally regarded as negligible, is the effect produced by flies coming 

 into contact with milk, either at the dairy farm, the city dairy, or at 

 the home of the consumer. It has been recently demonstrated beyond 

 peradventure that a single fly may contaminate sterile water, for 

 example, to the extent of 1,500,000 bacteria, a fly captured in Brook- 

 lyn in the summer of 1907 having been found actually to carry in its 

 mouth and upon its legs over 100,000 fecal bacteria which it had 

 collected in walking over human excreta and which it was probably 

 intending to transmit to the nearest milk pitcher. This observation 

 emphasizes not only the importance of keeping manure piles, pigpens, 

 and other possible breeding places for flies (and likewise for the con- 



1 See pages 25 et seq. 



2 Bulletins Nos. 35, 44, 52, and 65, Hygienic Laboratory, Public Health and Marine- 

 Hospital Service, U. S. Treasury Department. 



