102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



The Lederle Laboratory of New York City, under the direc- 

 tion of Dr. H. D. Pease, tested out the pasteurizing efficiency 

 by inoculating milk before pasteurization with large numbers of 

 virulent germs of tuberculosis, typhoid and diphtheria. The 

 experiment was conducted in a commercial milk plant, under 

 good average conditions in such plants. Their results, which 

 were conclusive and unmistakable, show that pasteurization of 

 milk under commercial conditions, using temperatures ranging 

 from 142° F. to 147° F. for a fraction of a minute, and by 

 additional holding of the pasteurized milk for thirty minutes 

 to temperatures ranging from 143° F. to 145° F., is sufficient 

 to insure total destruction of large numbers of pathogenic 

 bacteria such as tubercle bacilli, typhoid bacilli and diphtheria 

 bacilli, which through contamination, might be present in raw 

 milk. This, then, means that pasteurization at 145° F., and 

 holding for thirty minutes, destroys all the germs of the most 

 common milk-borne diseases. Similar results with the same 

 species of bacteria, as well as with other organisms of milk- 

 borne diseases, have been obtained and reported by other in- 

 vestigators who rank high in the world of science, such as 

 Russel and Hastings of Wisconsin, Theobald Smith and Rosenau 

 of Harvard University, Marshall of Michigan, Burri of Switzer- 

 land and others. These important facts leave not a shadow of 

 doubt that pasteurization, when properly executed, is a reliable 

 and effective means to free the milk from germs of disease, and 

 to supply the consuming public with a safe milk. 



From the time of its inception pasteurization has had its 

 enemies as well as its friends. Like other innovations of similar 

 nature, pasteurization has run the gauntlet of public and pro- 

 fessional opinion. In its early days and in its cruder form its 

 advocates were few, and its progress was impeded by distrust 

 of the conservative, quarrels of the faddist and abuse by the 

 pessimist. As the process attained greater perfection, and its 

 principles and good results became better known, the process 

 gained in favor, its merits and usefulness could no longer be 

 denied by men of intelligence and progressive mind, suspicion 

 changed into appreciation and abuse into eulogy. To-day, 

 while there still exists some apparent division of opinion, the 

 great majority of thinking men, interested in the permanent 



