PREFACE 



THE fundamental importance of milk makes it a subject 

 which should be studied and investigated from every point 

 of view. The present volume is entirely concerned with milk 

 in its relationship to the general health of the community. 



A great deal of loose talk is heard at the present time 

 about the dangers of milk sometimes ill-informed, frequently 

 exaggerated. There can, however, be no question but that this 

 great food, so widely consumed, so readily polluted, is intimately 

 connected with the health of the people, particularly of its 

 younger members, and that the lamentable want of even 

 ordinary care with which it is treated is responsible for an 

 immense deal of sickness, ill-health, and death. 



While the danger exists, and should be emphasised by the 

 scientific Public Health investigator, it is for him to neither 

 exaggerate nor underrate it, but first to measure and assess 

 the danger, and then to demonstrate how it can be removed 

 or at least diminished. The present volume is an attempt to 

 do this. 



Administrative action should be the outcome of the 

 application of accurately determined scientific facts to practical 

 conditions. In Part I. an endeavour has been made to give a 

 summary of our scientific knowledge and of the facts with 

 which the patient labours of many investigators have endowed 

 us as to the bacterial contamination of milk and its relationship 



250809 



