58 KEPORT OF THE No. 55 



IN ITS EXPERIMENTAL STAGES. 



Hence, when your Commission, actuated by a desire to place before the 

 people of this Province the results of any new methods of dealing with the difficult 

 problem of the milk supply, visited Chicago in August, they found the tuberculin 

 testing-pasteurization ordinance still in its experimental stages' also still in poli- 

 tics. They found that Dr. Evans, thoroughly convinced of its merits, was making 

 a faithful and conscientious effort to enforce it. 



It was learned that special reasons had led to the adoption of the system. Dr. 

 Evans explained that Chicago in 1908 had the second highest infant death rate of 

 any of the large cities of the United States. This fact in itself was startling and 

 demanded attention. Then, the milk to supply the two and a quarter millions of 

 Chicago's population came from four States Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and 

 Michigan. In northwest Indiana, the cattle were mostly tuberculin tested, and 

 in Wisconsin about half were. The result was that Illinois, from whence came the 

 larger part of the city's milk, was becoming the "dumping ground" for the reacting 

 cattle of the adjoining States, and as a consequence it was estimated that thirty 

 per cent, of Illinois cattle were tuberculous. Moreover, the city had no ice ordin- 

 ance in reference to the transportation of milk, and in the summer months it 

 arrived in the city at a temperature of from 70 to 80 degrees. Then, there was 

 the question of price. Chicago citizens refuse to pay more than seven cents a quart 

 for their milk and some only six. Pasteurization helps to keep the price down. 



Up to August, 30,000 of the 120,000 cows supplying Chicago had been tested, 

 furnishing 7,000 eight-gallon cans out of the 30,060 eight-gallon cans used each 

 day. Of the balance, 18,000 cans are pasteurized and 5,000 cans are sold in de- 

 fiance of the city law. The milk comes from 12,000 farms within a radius of sixty 

 miles. In the working out of the tuberculin test difficulties had been met with 

 the dishonest veterinarian, the farmer who would hustle a reacting cow into a 

 neighboring herd and demand that it be retested so that it would not react and 

 it was found more easy to enforce and control pasteurization than tuberculin testing. 



INFANT MORTALITY DECREASES; DIARRHOEAL DISEASES 



INCREASE. 



"Publicity is one of the very best agents you can have," remarked Dr. Evans, 

 and one of the very excellent publicity adjuncts to the Department of Health is 

 a four, six or eight page "Bulletin," issued each Saturday by the Chicago School 

 of Sanitary Instruction. It is distributed free, and through it the Department 

 disseminates advice and information on health matters. Its motto is the words 

 of Earl Derby : "Sanitary instruction is more important than sanitary legislation." 

 It gives each week an analyzed statement of the mortality of all ages and all causes 

 for the previous seven days, and it showed that during the week previous to the 

 visit of your Commission the total deaths under one year of age had been 194, as 

 compared to 181 during the same week of the previous year, an increase of 13. 

 The deaths from diarrhceal diseases numbered 167 under two years, being 23 higher 

 than the same week last year. Similarly during the week following the deaths un- 

 der one year increased from 189 to 208 and those from diarrhrcal diseases from 

 106 to 209. 



Tt would be unfair, however, to cite the two hottest weeks of August as a cri- 

 terion. A better criterion is found in the complete figures for the nine months 

 ending September 30th, and these show a gratifying decrease in the deaths under 



