SPECIAL PURE MILK METHODS 349 



New York has added a clause to her pure food law protecting 

 the term against false use and regulating its employment by 

 Milk Commissions : " All milk sold as certified shall be con- 

 spicuously marked with the name of the Commission certify- 

 ing it." Kentucky also has passed a law regarding certified 

 milk. The first law anywhere that gives legal recognition to 

 the Medical Milk Commission is the one passed in 1909 by 

 the State of New Jersey. As this is of considerable interest 

 and importance it is reprinted in the Appendix, p. 447. 



The Commissions are composed (with rare exceptions) of 

 medical men usually appointed by medical societies. They 

 themselves receive no pay, but employ experts who are gener- 

 ally paid. The expenses incurred are paid for by the dairy- 

 men, the money being raised in different ways, one of the 

 commonest being by the sale of caps for the bottles. 



According to Machell, the additional cost to the consumer 

 ^in the United States has varied from 3 to 8 cents per quart. 

 The average additional advance has been about. 5 cents per 

 quart above the cost of ordinary market milk.*" Coit, 1 how- 

 ever, remarks : " While no milk fit for ordinary domestic use 

 can be produced with profit to the dairyman for less than 5 

 or 6 cents at first cost, milk of a suitable grade for hospitals 

 or for infant feeding cannot be sold at a profit for less than 

 15 cents per quart." 



The work carried on by the Commission may be best out- 

 lined in Coit's own words : l 



The plan provides that the medical commission establish correct 

 clinical standards of purity for the milk ; become responsible for 

 periodical expert inspections of the dairy or dairies under its 

 patronage ; provide for frequent examinations of the product by a 

 chemist and a bacteriologist, the first to determine its food values, 

 and the latter to serve as a detective control over the methods 

 employed in collecting and handling the milk. The medical com- 

 mission also directs a frequent scrutiny of the live stock by 

 competent veterinarians, whose duties consist in keeping the herd 

 free from disease and also in the detection and exclusion of bovine 

 tuberculosis.. Likewise the commission directs a systematic medical 

 supervision of the health of the dairy employees, and insists upon 

 a continuous knowledge, through reports by a physician, of their 

 health and personal hygiene. By the service of reliable experts in 



1 Public Health, 1909, vol. xxiii. p. 93. 



