l62 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Another source of contamination here in Boulder is the failure to 

 comply with the ordinance requiring the sterilization of every bottle 

 in which milk is sold or delivered. The dairy from which samples 

 Nos. lo and 14 were obtained is known to disregard this rule quite 

 constantly. The following is a fair example: On one occasion I 

 returned a bottle to this milk depot asking for a pint, or a quart, of 

 milk or cream, as the case may be. The boy took the bottle 

 which I had just brought in from a dusty street, and filled it from a 

 can. I objected — much to his surprise. When I offered sufl&cient 

 objection, he poured the milk back into the can, and held the bottle 

 under a cold-water faucet and rinsed it a little, then refilled it from the 

 same can. I again objected, and finally got a bottle which he said 

 had been sterilized and had it filled from another can. I followed this 

 up merely as a test, for the bottle he claimed was steriHzed was taken 

 from beneath the counter, and I have no reason to beHeve the second 

 can was any better than the first. These are details which are very 

 important and very easy to comply with if there is the spirit of com- 

 pHance. 



Another instance along the same line: One of the faculty ladies 

 saw a milkman filling bottles in the street from a can. She had just 

 seen him taking empty bottles from an adjoining house. How many of 

 us wish to receive milk in bottles which may have just come from a 

 tuberculous case before they are sterilized ? I myself object. 



In several conversations with the City Milk Inspector of the period 

 during which these determinations were made, this gentleman deplored 

 the fact that he was not equipped to make bacteriological examina- 

 tions of the various products entering Boulder, but he assured me 

 that ''whenever he had reason to suspicion anyone" he got a sample 

 and had it examined for butter fat. Now Boulder places the very 

 low minimum limit of 3I per cent butter fat, yet Charts II and III 

 will show that, of fourteen determinations made, seven — or one-half — 

 were less than 3^ per cent. This would seem to indicate that the city 

 is not doing much to protect its milk supply when so simple a thing as 

 the Babcock test for butter fat is not carried out often enough to 

 eliminate these low-grade milks. 



