98 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLOMBIA. 



the utmost care and circumspection, is certain to render the product 

 innocuous, and is consequently entitled to unqualified indorsement. 

 The time may come when dairy farming will be systematized and 

 advanced to such a state of perfection that pasteurization will be a 

 needless recourse, but such a happy condition of affairs is not likely 

 to ensue for many years to come, and until it eventuates pasteuriza- 

 tion must of necessity be generally practiced as a means of safeguard- 

 ing the public health and gradually, but effectively, decreasing the 

 alarming rate of mortality resulting from tuberculosis, diphtheria, 

 typhoid and scarlet fevers, and various gastrointestinal diseases, wkich 

 latter present so formidable an obstacle to the immunity, especially of 

 infant life, from disease and destruction. 



There is a prevailing impression that pasteurization of milk adds 

 merit to that important article of diet, but this is only true in so far 

 as it negatives and nullifies the harmful effects of certain disease- 

 breeding germs.- Milk after pasteurization requires the same degree 

 of care and attention to prevent contamination as is the case with raw 

 milk, and the carelessness likely to result from this dependence upon 

 its immunity to further contamination is, in the opinion of the com- 

 mittee, one of the weightiest arguments offered against pasteuriza- 

 tion. This objection is far outweighed, however, in the minds of the 

 committee, by the fact that pasteurization enables one to obtain 

 milk in the condition when it leaves the pasteurizing plant prac- 

 tically, if not entirely, free from live disease-breeding organisms, and 

 it then rests with the consumer whether he shall bestow upon it from 

 that time on the intelligent care which is necessary to prevent its 

 premature deterioration. It may be added that milk in the manner 

 in which it leaves the pasteurizing plant, namely, in a sealed package, 

 not to be opened until delivered to the home of the consumer, is much 

 less liable to contamination after pasteurization than in its journey 

 from the disease-breeding surroundings of the farm to the pas- 

 teurizer. Since, moreover, long series of laboratory experiments, as 

 well as clinical observations, lead us to believe that properly pas- 

 teurized milk is quite as digestible as raw milk, the committee is pre- 

 pared to recommend pasteurization as the only effective means under 

 existing circumstances of diminishing, if not entirely eliminating, the 

 danger of infection through the agency of milk with tuberculosis, 

 typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other diseases. 



CHICAGO MILK ORDINANCE. 



An ordinance of January 1, 1909, provides that all milk sold in 

 Chicago, beginning January 1, 1914, shall be obtained from tuber- 

 culin-tested cows. During the interim of five years, milk not ob- 

 tained from tuberculin-tested cows may be sold, provided it be pas- 

 teurized according to rules and regulations of the Chicago depart- 

 ment of health. Under this ordinance, states Dr. F. O. Tonney, 1 

 director of the municipal laboratories of Chicago, about 54 per cent 

 of the milk sold in Chicago is now pasteurized and 24 per cent is 

 tuberculin tested, and it is anticipated that before the close of the 

 present season (autumn of 1910) the remaining 22 per cent will be 



1 " Tuberculosis in Market Milk of Chicago," read in section on preventive medicine 

 and public health of the American Medical Association, at St. Louis, June, 1910 ; Journal 

 of American Medical Association, Vol. LV, No. 15, Oct. 8, 1910, p. 1252. 



