THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 367 



17. To what extent, in your judgment, is the decrease in mortality due to the 

 improvement of the milk supply? 



Answer. It is impossible to estimate the extent to which the decrease in the 

 mortality of this District is due to the improvement of the milk supply. The 

 fact that the decrease in infant mortality has been greater than the decrease 

 in the mortality of the population as a whole, and the fact that there has 

 been a very marked decrease in the infant mortality from diarrheal diseases, 

 the decrease in the infant mortality beginning almost coincidently with the 

 enforcement of the milk law of 1895, suggests very strongly the existence of a 

 causal relation. The extent of that causal relation, however, as stated above, is 

 impossible to determine. There have, of course, been many other factors at 

 work tending toward the reduction of infant mortality. It should be noted in 

 studying the figures given in the preceding answer that the decrease in the 

 number of deaths of children under 1 year of age from all causes and the 

 decrease in the number of deaths of children 2 years of age from diarrheal dis- 

 eases have occurred, notwithstanding a general increase in the population. 



18. Can you suggest any additional requirements for the betterment of the 

 District's milk supply, and the safeguarding of public health? 



Answer. All milk should be tuberculin tested or else pasteurized. All milk 

 should be properly cooled and kept cool. Arrangements should be made for the 

 instruction of mothers in caring for their infants, and this can in no other way 

 be done so well as in connection with the free distribution of proper milk to per- 

 sons unable to pay for it and the distribution of milk at reduced prices to 

 persons who are unable to pay the ordinary market price for a milk of proper 

 quality. There are, of course, many other suggestions that might be made with 

 respect to the improvement of the health of the District, but these seem to be 

 those most directly connected with the subject now under consideration. 



19. Have inspectors been cautioned to exercise patience and tact in the dis- 

 charge of their duties? 



Answer. Inspectors have been told repeatedly that it is desired that they act 

 primarily as instructors and advisers to persons producing and selling milk, 

 dealing with those with whom they come in contact rather as persons who 

 desire to do right and who are to be helped along than as persons who are un- 

 willing to do right and have to be driven along. Inspectors have been directed 

 to use compulsion only when compulsion was necessary. 



20. Have there been many complaints filed of improper action on the part of 

 inspectors in the performance of their duty? 



Answer. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, there were approximately 

 10 complaints filed against inspectors in the dairy-farm and milk-inspection 

 service, numbering in all 10 inspectors. None of these complaints were 

 regarded, after investigation, as well founded. 



21. ' Is the present force of inspectors sufficient to compel the proper observance 

 of the existing and proposed regulations? 



Answer. No ; the present force can not compel proper compliance with existing 

 regulations, and the necessity of applying the tuberculin test to dairy herds 

 hereafter will still further diminish its capacity to accomplish that end. 



22. Has a bacteriological laboratory recently been established for the 'health 

 department? 



Answer. No; the health department had a bacteriological laboratory for 

 many years. The bacteriological laboratory has. however, up to the early part 

 of the current fiscal year been devoted exclusively to the contagious disease 

 service, having been established and operated from funds appropriated exclu- 

 sively for that service. The appropriation act for the current year, however, 

 approved May 18, 1910, provided $500 for the equipment and maintenance of 

 the bacteriological laboratory, and authorized the bacteriologist employed out 

 of the contagious disease appropriation, under direction of the health officer, 

 to undertake the bacteriological examination of milk and of other dairy prod- 

 ucts and of the water supplies of dairy farms, whether such examinations be 

 or be not directly related to contagious diseases. Since that time, therefore, 

 the health department has undertaken the bacteriological examination of milk. 



23. Have any attempts been made, to your knowledge, to secure legislation 

 by Congress affecting the production, transportation, and distribution of milk, 

 under the authority vested in the national legislation to regulate commerce 

 between the several States? 



Answer. The act of 1895, relating to the production of milk in and for the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, was made by Congress, quite as much by virtue of its power 

 to regulate interstate commerce as by virtue of its power to legislate for the 

 District of Columbia. The food and drugs act of 1898, enacted by Congress for 



