No. 4.] MILK SUPPLY AND PUBLIC HEALTH. 47 



also in other fields to the discovery and elaborate study of 

 the special ferments or germs of such diseases as typhoid 

 fever and diphtheria, and their behavior in milk, from which 

 it appeared that they might readily thrive in that fluid. 

 Further reflection and investigation along these lines have 

 shown that city milk is often in an advanced stage of de- 

 composition, and therefore very far removed from " normal" 

 milk. 



It had long been known that bottle-fed babies in cities show 

 a much heavier mortality than those fed normally ; and in- 

 vestigations have shown that this is due, in part at least, to the 

 highly unsatisfactory condition of city milk supplies. Inves- 

 tigation has also shown that city milk is often not only 

 falsified but also stale and half decomposed, as well as filthy. 



In consequence of these facts, which have been steadily 

 accumulating, and which, taken together, compel physicians 

 and sanitarians to look with the utmost suspicion on city 

 milk, the general public is rapidly becoming convinced that 

 milk is not only of very doubtful purity, — of this it was per- 

 suaded long ago, — but, what is far more grave, actually 

 dangerous to use as human food, — at least in its raw condi- 

 tion. Moreover, the fact that tuberculosis is the cause of 

 death of one in every seven and is known to be common 

 in cows, has naturally led many to suppose that numerous 

 cases of this disease have arisen from the consumption of raw 

 milk. Pus, also, is said to be often found in milk. 



Importance to Producers of the Good Reputation of 

 Milk from a Sanitary Stand-point. 



I need not dwell on this aspect of the subject. Milk is too 

 valuable a product of Massachusetts farms to pass under a 

 cloud without serious damage to the whole community and, 

 above all, to the farmer. In my opinion, the sale and use 

 of milk as a food will soon be very seriously impaired — and 

 indeed ought to be — unless active steps are taken to free it 

 from the dark cloud of suspicion which now hangs over it. 

 If there is believed to be death in the pot, who will care for 

 the pottage? 



So serious is this matter, in the minds of sanitarians, that 

 the Massachusetts Association of Boards of Health is seriously 



