332 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



get Into the mouth, they are killed by the fluids of the body and can not gain a 

 foothold. So, if all these points are considered, it is easy to understand how 

 typhoid spreads as it does, and also why so many persons escape, though more 

 or less exposed to the disease. 



About milk inpection. It very often happens that the father or brother who 

 helps the nurse by emptying or burying the discharges also milks the cows. He 

 is then very apt to transfer infection to the milk in the process of milking, for 

 whatever he has on his hands is likely to go into the milk. If he strains the 

 milk as he puts it into cans or bottles or helps to care for it in any way, he is 

 equally likely to infect it. So, too, if he peddles the milk from cans. If the 

 pails, cans, and straining cloths are washed in the house in the same sink or tub 

 with other things or by any member of the family, infection may result. Many 

 an outbreak of disease with scores of cases and many deaths has been traced 

 to milk thus infected by a farmer's or dealer's lack of cleanliness. Many a 

 farmer's business has been ruined and death has entered his own family in this 

 way. A separate room should be provided for the care of milk and the washing 

 of vessels. These should be sterilized by steam, if possible, and certainly by 

 boiling water. Always thoroughly wash the hands before milking or handling 

 milk. If typhoid fever occurs in the family of a milk producer or dealer, the 

 patient should be at once removed from the premises or those who handle the 

 milk should live away from the premises. 



PEOVIDENCE, May, 1908. 



[Health Department Circular.] 

 BEWARE OF FLIES. 



Flies are filthy insects. They drink from the cesspool and dine in the privy 

 vault. They eat the sputum on the sidewalk and revel in the garbage pail. 



Perhaps you think it is disgusting to read about such things, and so it is. 

 But is it not more disgusting to have these same flies after their repast of filth, 

 drown in the milk pitcher, drop their specks on the frosted cake, or clean their 

 feet on the bread? Is it pleasant to see the flies that very likely have just 

 come from a neighboring privy crawl over the lips of the sleeping baby or 

 gather on the nipple of its nursing bottle? Suppose the fly that was fished out 

 of the milk pitcher had just been eating the excrement of a typhoid fever 

 patient, would you like to drink the milk? Perhaps the flies that were walk- 

 ing on the fruit which you purchased at the street corner had just been feeding 

 on the sputum of a consumptive. Does it not seem likely that flies may spread 

 disease? That is what many physicians and health officers think. 



Perhaps hereafter you will screen the house and protect the food from flies. 



The young of flies are maggots. They seem to prefer to breed in stable 

 manure. But they also breed in excrement of all kinds, in garbage, and in all 

 sorts of wet and filthy refuse. 



Do you want to raise these filthy insects, these germ carriers, to be a pest in 

 your own house, and perhaps carry disease to your neighbors? Of course you 

 do not. 



Then keep the stable manure closely covered and have it removed often 

 once a week in summer if possible. Keep the back yard and the alley clean. 

 Allow no refuse to accumulate anywhere. After your own premises are in 

 order talk over the matter with your neighbors, and get them also to read this 

 circular. 



PBOVIDENCE, 1909. 



RICHMOND, VA. 



AN ORDINANCE TO create the office of inspector of milk and food supplies, and to 



grovide for the inspection of milk, meat, and other food supplies brought or offered 

 :>r sale in the city of Richmond, and to prohibit the sale of adulterated or impure 

 milk, meat, and other, food supplies within the city of Richmond. 



[Approved June 9, 1904. Sections 8 and 9 as amended Mar. 19, 1910.] 



Be it ordained ~by the council of the city of Richmond (1) That it shall be the 

 duty of the board of health, as soon as practicable after the passage of this 

 ordinance, and biennially thereafter between the 1st day of October and the 



