THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 103 



of cleanliness, and these specific germs, one and all of them, may be destroyed 

 by the average pasteurization. 



W. T. Sedgwick, another acknowledged authority, observes as 



follows : * 



When all is said and done, I agree with Prof. Smith that we have got to pas- 

 teurize milk. Cooked milk is the only safe, and always will remain the only 

 safe, milk for the use of mankind. Little by little the idea is spreading that 

 raw milk is apt to be dangerous milk. 



While there is some variance among authorities whether it may be 

 substantiated upon subsequent examination that milk has been prop- 

 erly pasteurized, the view is apparently well defined that this may be 

 done. The Surgeon General of the Public Health and Marine-Hos- 

 pital Service takes the ground, however, that this is not practicable 

 except by a bacterial examination of the milk both before and after 

 pasteurization. Dr. Melvin, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try, assents to the proposition that the bacterial count is a good index 

 to the efficiency of pasteurization. 



PASTEURIZATION DOES NOT DISPENSE WITH NECESSITY FOR TUBERCULIN 



TEST. 



Authorities are practically a unit in the belief that pasteurization, 

 if introduced, would not dispense with the necessity for the tuberculin 

 test. The Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry explains that the 

 tuberculin test is an important function in eradicating tuberculosis 

 of animals for the economic benefit of the live-stock industry, as well 

 as for the conservation of the supply of milk. Dr. Park maintains 

 the position that pasteurization relieves the necessity for the applica- 

 tion of the tuberculin test so far as the safety of milk is concerned. 

 Dr. Coit is emphatic in his view that pasteurization, if generally 

 insisted upon, would not do away with the necessity for the tuberculin 

 test, since, as he observes, tuberculosis is the most insidious germ 

 carried by milk. Surg. Gen. Stokes, of the Navy, advocates the 

 enforcement of the test coincidently with pasteurization if introduced, 

 for the reason that the eradication of bovine tuberculosis is a neces- 

 sary sanitary measure. The committee begs to observe in this con- 

 nection that, while pasteurization destroys the preponderant germ 

 life of the milk, the dead germs are not removed from the product, 

 and it is manifestly advantageous that the tuberculin test, as well as 

 any other precautions tending to reduce to a minimum the amount of 

 germ life existent in the milk offered for pasteurization, should be 

 insisted upon. It is additionally urged that, while pasteurization 

 destroys the tubercle bacilli, it does not remove the toxins, the forma- 

 tion of which should, therefore, be jealously avoided. 



COMMUNICABILITY OF BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS TO HUMAN BEINGS. 



Quite the contrary is the situation with reference to the effect of 

 pasteurization, if compelled, in obviating the possible infection with 

 tuberculosis through the medium of milk or meat from affected ani- 

 mals. There is stanch support among the authorities consulted by 



1 Journal of Massachusetts Association of Boards of Health, Vol. XIV, February, 1904, 

 p. 41. 



