100 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



the milk supply that will prevent its occasional contamination, and 

 while pasteurization can not make bad milk good, it can, when prop- 

 erly applied, make bad milk harmless (except when derived from 

 animals suffering with certain rare specific diseases). 



It should be borne in mind though that pasteurization is not ap- 

 propriately to be used for preserving unclean or old milk, but as a 

 measure of safety against dangers which no other precaution can 

 obviate. For this reason it is especially important that pasteuriza- 

 tion should be practiced under proper supervision, so that not only 

 may it be insured that the milk is maintained within the proper tem- 

 peratures for the prescribed length of time, but what is equally im- 

 portant, that the milk, up to the moment when placed in the pastuer- 

 izer, shall be cleanly milk and fresh milk and cool milk. 



Dr. M. J. Rosenau, formerly director of the Hygienic Laboratory 

 of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service and now director 

 of the bacteriological laboratory of Harvard University, states x that 

 " milk should be produced under clean conditions and kept clean and 

 it would not then have to be purified. But," he continues, " we must 

 guard against enemies as long as they exist. We would all like to 

 do away with armies and navies, but present conditions demand their 

 maintenance, and the same is true of harmful bacteria in milk; 

 so long as the average market milk is bad and contains these insidious 

 foes, the only protection we have is to destroy them with heat." 



It has been contended by the milk producers and dealers in the 

 hearings before the committee that pasteurization is objectionable 

 for the reason that, unless carefully and scientifically done, its effect 

 is to destroy the nutritive qualities of milk, and that, if compulsorily 

 insisted upon, it would be directed largely toward preserving filthy, 

 impure, and stale milk, instead of being properly employed as an 

 agency for eliminating germs which are prejudicial to the health 

 of the consumer. It was argued, moreover, that the mandatory 

 pasteurization of all milk (except "certified" milk) sold to the 

 Washington public would necessarily eliminate the small dealer - 

 the merchant of modest means from the business of supplying 

 milk, and reduce the number engaged in this occupation to a few 

 men of considerable means, who would thereupon enter into com- 

 bination for the purpose of extorting unreasonable prices and foist- 

 ing other exactions upon a helpless public. 







COST OF INSTALLING PASTEURIZING PLANTS. 



Examination by the committee into the subject of pasteurization 

 evinces the fact that the installation of the ordinary pasteurizing 

 plant of the city dealer involves an expenditure of upward of 

 $10,000. 



With reference to the cost of establishing a suitable central plant 

 for the pasteurization of the Washington milk supply, the com- 

 mittee appends a communication (Appendix AM) received in re- 

 sponse to its inquiry of December 3, 1910 (Appendix AL), from 

 Mr. Loton Horton, of the Sheffield Farms- Slawson-Decker Co., of 

 New York City, stating that the company is at present constructing 

 the second largest pasteurizing plant in New York City, with a 



1 Bulletin No. 56, Hygienic Laboratory, U. S. Public Health and Marine-Hospital Serv- 

 ice, p. 641. 



