88 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



avoid the exposure of the milk to the rays of the sun or to warm air 

 when standing on the doorstep. While it is undoubtedly desirable. 

 in the judgment of the officials of the Bureau of Animal Industry, 

 that milk should not be permitted to remain on the doorstep in warm 

 weather long enough to allow a material rise in its temperature, the 

 feasibility of specifying certain hours for its delivery is questioned. 

 Some of the persons consulted by the committee are dubious as to 

 whether such regulations would be capable of enforcement, while 

 others suggest that the milk be so placed as to shelter it from the sun. 

 In the opinion of Dr. Goler, health officer of Rochester, N. Y., milk 

 should not be permitted to be delivered to the consumer prior to 6 

 o'clock a. m., while Dr. Walter S. Wheeler, health commissioner of 

 Kansas City, Mo., alleges that in some cities regulations prescribe 

 from 12 o'clock midnight to 8 o'clock in the morning as the hours for 

 city delivery. 



In Wheeling, W. Va., the distributor of certified milk is not al- 

 lowed to leave it on the doorstep, but must place it in an ice chest or 

 in the hands of an adult member of the family. 



Dr. J. M. Houston, bacteriologist of the Washington branch of the 

 White Cross Milk Co., is decidedly of the opinion that milk should 

 be required to be delivered after 7 a. m., so that it can be taken into 

 the home and not exposed to contamination on the doorstep and to 

 the rays of the hot sun in summer and to freezing in winter. He adds 

 that if this plan be effectuated, the dealer would not be embarrassed 

 so largely by complaints of stolen milk and by the inefficient class of 

 help on which he must depend for earlier deliveries. 



Dr. Hamill, of Philadelphia, considers it very important to pre- 

 scribe definite hours for the city delivery of milk, the dealer being 

 required to deliver the milk at such hours as to enable the consumer 

 to receive it into his home immediately upon delivery. Dr. Park 

 favors the limitation of hours of city delivery during the warm 

 months, so that milk would not, at leastj remain more than 30 minutes 

 exposed to a temperature above 55 F. Dr. J. P. Kennedy, health 

 officer of Atlanta, Ga., thinks that the subject could best be controlled 

 by issuing from the health department printed slips of instructions, 

 to be delivered at intervals by dairymen to their customers. 



The committee is not prepared to commend as feasible the speci- 

 fication of certain fixed hours for delivery, since, in its judgment, to 

 exact this requirement would compel a large supplemental outlay on 

 the part of distributors for additional delivery wagons and help, and 

 would possibly make the retail cost of milk prohibitively high, im- 

 posing a hardship on the milkman and possibly embarrassing the 

 plans of the householder. 



TEMPERATURE FOR MILK PRODUCTS. 



The fact that cream is shown to contain pathogenic germs in viru- 

 lent form convinces the committee that it is advisable to require this 

 to be maintained at a temperature below 50 F., and the committee 

 consequently recommends that such a requirement be imposed. The 

 same observation does not apply, however, to butter and cheese, 

 which, owing to their density, are not, favorable to the proliferation 

 of pathogenic germs at ordinary temperatures, though it should be 

 demanded that milk from which these products are made be kept, up 



