19O9 MILK COMMISSION. 129 



teria should always be counted in the millions. We believe it would be a distinct 

 improvement in the larger cities of the Province to provide that milk should be 

 sold in shops only in bottles, except in shops restricted to dairy products. This 

 plan has been adopted in Chicago, Syracuse and other cities with good results and 

 is being adopted in Boston on the first of May next. 



As a means of keeping milk vendors up to the standard, a few of the smaller 

 cities have found the publication of the tests to be of a very material assistance, 

 being more effective than fines and prosecutions. We believe municipalities should 

 be confirmed in the use of this 1 beneficent publicity. 



It does not seem to us practical to fix a bacteria standard for the Province, but 

 we are convinced that a bacteriological laboratory and bacteria tests would be 

 found, by the larger cities at least, to be a distinct aid in the supervision of the 

 milk supply. While it might not be found practical to fix an arbitrary standard 

 for bacteria, it would be found that the number of bacteria constituted a reliable 

 index to the cleanliness and care exercised in [handling the milk. At present 

 Boston has a municipal standard of 500,000 per cc., Kochester of 100,000, and a few 

 other places of 100,000. New York has a standard of 1,000,000, but found it 

 unworkable and modified it to provide that milk should not contain "an excessive 

 number." This great disparity indicates the difficulty of fixing a standard and is 

 due to the fact that a million of certain kinds of bacteria may be less harmful 

 than a few of certain other disease-producing types. Furthermore, dirty milk 

 kept cold would show a lower count than clean milk kept at a higher temperature. 

 Another point to be borne in mind is that the different "media" used by different 

 bacteriologists in making the counts produces different results. In a general way, 

 however, it would appear reasonable that milk with a count of a million would 

 contain more pathogenic germs than milk with a hundred thousand. A labora- 

 tory would keep a city informed on these points; and repeated high counts, or the 

 discovery of tubercle or other pathogenic bacilli, would point to the source of 

 trouble, which might be easily remedied. Of twenty samples tested for your 

 Commission, we found the counts of milk from various parts of the Province 

 ranged from 50,000 to 75,000,000 per cc. 



PASTEURIZATION NOT AN IDEAL, BUT MAY BE AN EXPEDIENT. 



In preceding chapters there is much evidence to show that the process known 

 as pasteurization has received very considerable attention from your Commission. 

 As this process is being advanced to-day by some <as the absolute and by others as 

 the partial solution of the problemj of a safe milk supply, we took advantage of 

 every opportunity offered, either by personal experience or literature, to possess 

 ourselves of the most authoritative information on this question. Our study and 

 observation impels us to the conviction that pasteurization cannot be considered 

 as a provincial ideal, but may be found necessary as a municipal expedient. In 

 these conclusions, we have deferred its consideration until after everything else 

 as we believe it should be adopted only after othor measures have failed. 



Pasteurization is so called because it was first introduced by the eminent 

 French scientist, Louis Pasteur. In his study of the diseases of wine around 

 1864, he discovered that heating would prevent souring and abnormal fermenta- 

 tion. A few years later the process was applied to milk. Pasteurization therefore 

 means the heating to a point below boiling, which is 212 degrees F., but the term 

 as applied to milk also includes prompt and rapid cooling. Getting down to a more 



5 M. c. 



