THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 247 



BURNSIDE (POST OFFICE ECCLESTON), MD., 



December 6, 1910. 

 J. L. WILLIGE, Esq., Chairman, 



Washington, D. C. 



DEAR SIR: Your letter to the Walker-Gordon Laboratory of Washington has 

 been referred to me, and I herewith inclose the question sheets answered so far 

 as I feel competent. 



I am also inclosing pamphlet, issued some little time ago, descriptive of the 

 farm where Bnrnside milk is produced. Here all employees report any sick- 

 ness in their families. Our medical adviser is at once consulted, and until 

 he decides that the disease is not contagious that employee takes no further 

 part in the handling of the milk. 1 consider this second only to integrity in 

 the safeguarding of milk. 



The purpose of the Walker-Gordon Laboratories is to fill the prescriptions of 

 physicians for milk containing definite percentages of fat, protein, sugar, etc., 

 and to furnish such other food for infants as the physician may prescribe. 

 While the laboratories sell a high grade of milk and creams for nursery and 

 table use, and a number of milk preparations, such as buttermilk, kephir, 

 koumiss, etc., they offer nothing that could properly be classed with propri- 

 etary foods. No modified or prescription milk is sold except on the order of 

 a physician, who rarely has difficulty in so changing his prescription as to 

 make the milk entirely suited to the digestion of the patient. The modifiers, 

 or prescription clerks, use carefully prepared tables by which many thou- 

 sands of different combinations can be effected without any chemical change 

 in the milk constituents. Where the child is doing well at the breast, but the 

 mother has not sufficient milk, the physician may have the mother's milk 

 analyzed, and, as nearly as is possible in cow's milk, reproduced for additional 

 feedings. 



I have endeavored to give you some idea of our aims, but it would be far 

 more satisfactory if I might have the pleasure of showing you and the other 

 members of your committee our plant, and I should be glad to know that it 

 would be agreeable to you to visit us. So far as I know now I shall be free to 

 meet you here any day you may select except the 9th, 10th, and loth instant, 

 and hope you will name an early date. 



Yours, sincerely, S. M. SHOEMAKER. 



NEW YORK WHITE CROSS MILK Co., 



New York City, November 30, 1910. 

 CHAIRMAN OF MILK COMMITTEE, 



Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. 



DEAR SIR: I am herewith returning you the list of questions asked by your 

 special committee. You will note that there are many questions I have made 

 no attempt to answer, but if it is of interest to you, I will write you on 

 pasteurized milk, condensed milk, and concentrated milk, in comparison with 

 raw milk. I will treat the condensed milk and concentrated milk without the 

 addition of sugar as a preservative in either case. 



Condensed milk is a product of milk, not milk. It is really milk from which 

 a portion of the water has been removed and is carried a few degrees higher 

 in temperature than pasteurized milk (190 to 200) for the purpose of coagu- 

 lating and albumin and casein, but this condensed milk has the same vital objec- 

 tion to be used as a general milk that follows with pasteurized milk, while 

 when freshly made, it would show a very low bacteria count and the absence 

 of pathogenic germs, but as it spoils it developes a putrefaction, and hence is 

 liable to produce a toxic condition. It is well understood that in milk subjected 

 to a vacuum there is a breaking down of cells and is followed by a sensible 

 decomposition of the proteids. 



Pasteurized milk is a milk that is subjected to a temperature varying from 

 140 to 165 ; different temperature depending on the length of time of the 

 exposure of milk to this temperature. It is much safer when freshly pasteur- 

 ized than it is as it grows older, as it is a well-recognized fact that in the city 

 of New York pasteurized milk is not permitted to be sold by a dealer after 

 it is 24 hours old, and while the bacteria count might be low, it is liable to 

 decomposition, and as often decomposition has no taste the very warning that 

 is necessary for spoiled milk is not there in the shape of souring and the 

 conditions are right for a toxic poison. If the temperature has been carried 



