No. 4 ] MILK SUPPLY AND PUBLIC HEALTH. 53 



The Duty of the Consumer in the City. 



Finally, I believe that the consumer has also something to 

 do in this reform movement. I believe that the present ordi- 

 nary price of milk is too low to allow clean, pure, safe or sani- 

 tary milk to be produced, transported and delivered with a 

 reasonable profit. I dislike the idea of one price for milk, 

 — good, bad and indifferent. How absurd it would be to 

 have only one price for all butter and all cheese and all 

 meat. True, we have only one price for water and for gas, 

 but then we have only one quality in these. I know of no 

 other food, so variable in quality as milk, which is sold at a 

 uniform price. I do not at present wish to see milk cheaper. 

 I wish first to see it better and if it is necessary, — as I 

 believe that it is, — actually dearer; because milk that is 

 filthy and stale and possibly diseased is dear at an}- price. I 

 am willing to declare, in season and out of season, to the con- 

 sumers of milk in cities, that ten cents a quart is as little as 

 good milk, pure milk, clean and sanitary milk, can be got 

 for at present ; and all except the very poor can, and I believe 

 will, gladly pay as much as this if they can feel sure that 

 what they get is pure and safe. 



Conclusion. 



The present state of the milk supply industry is very much 

 like that of surgery previous to 1870. At that time surgeons 

 did their work with no suspicion that they were not clean 

 enough and careful enough. And when, about 1870, Lister 

 showed that air, water and even their instruments teemed 

 with microscopic life, causing inestimable damage in their 

 operations, they were incredulous, if not scornful. To-day 

 every one knows that Lister was right, and that operations 

 then beyond the highest hopes of surgery are now done with 

 safety, simply by observing the rules of absolute cleanliness 

 and exclusion of germ life. 



So it is to-day with milk supplies. Farmers and middle- 

 men (and often the consumers also) think that they are clean 

 and careful in their handling of cow's milk, when the truth 

 is their standard of cleanness and freshness and purity is 



