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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 708 



Sparge himself, and many and possibly most 

 of whom are doing all that can be done with 

 the authority and money that the people have 

 put at their command. What these men 

 need, if they are to do efficient work, is more 

 public sympathy and support, and more au- 

 thority and more money wherewith to exercise 

 it, and the, publication of such statements as 

 those quoted above will not help them to get 

 any of these things. 



With the author's working program no 

 fault can be found : " Healthy herds, efficient 

 inspection, insistence upon cleanliness and 

 careful handling of the milk, municipal 

 farms for providing public institutions, in- 

 fants' milk depots for the sale of properly 

 modified and pasteurized milk for babies, 

 education of the mothers and the girls before 

 they reach wifehood and motherhood." Too 

 little consideration is given to the cost of 

 producing and marketing milk, for after all it 

 is reasonable to believe that milkmen will be 

 found ready to provide just as good a product 

 as the market demands, providing only that 

 the market is reasonably steady and the 

 market price yields a fare profit. The stress 

 laid on the availability of the goat as a 

 source of milk is unusual. The proper 

 sphere of this animal seems to be, however, 

 as a source of one family supply, so that the 

 consumer can be in entire command of the 

 situation and the milk, taken from the goat 

 under ideal conditions, pass promptly from 

 the udder of the animal to the stomach of 

 the child. But with the prevalence of apart- 

 ment house life, and with the backyard of 

 the dwelling contracted almost to the vanish- 

 ing point, there are serious difficulties in the 

 way of introducing goats into the domestic 

 establishment. As a competitor to the cow 

 in the production of the general milk supply 

 the goat does not need to be seriously con- 

 sidered. 



The author has followed the common prac- 

 tise of adopting infant mortality as an index 

 to the character of the milk supply. No 

 death rate, however, for infants under one 

 year of age, or for children over one and 

 under five, is of material value unless calcu- 



lated on the basis of the population of cor- 

 responding age, and too commonly no such 

 basis is available. No general death rate for 

 infants is of value as an index to the effi- 

 ciency of milk control, since it is based in 

 part on the deaths of infants due to difficult 

 labor, premature delivery and other causes 

 to which the character of the milk supply is 

 in no way related, and is influenced by varia- 

 tions in the numbers of deaths from these 

 causes. And while the death rate from 

 diarrhoeal diseases among children under one 

 or under two years of age possibly forms the 

 best basis for estimating the results of the 

 improvement of the milk supply, the number 

 of deaths from such diseases is so influenced 

 by atmospheric temperature and humidity 

 that a full and accurate knowledge of such 

 conditions is necessary when interpreting 

 such death rates unless the figures relate to 

 periods of time of such considerable duration 

 as to reduce to a minimum the effect of these 

 factors. 



It is to be hoped that when another edition 

 of this book is published a more convenient 

 system of references to authors consulted will 

 be adopted. A less diffuse style and possibly 

 the concentration of attention on fewer sub- 

 jects would probably render the book of more 

 interest and value to the general reader. 

 The fact that a layman should write a book 

 on the milk question for lay readers and that 

 a publisher should expect to find a sale for it 

 is a hopeful sign of the times and augurs 

 well for the early solution of the problem, for 

 people themselves will eventually have to 

 settle all questions concerning it, either 

 through conunercial readjustments or through 

 force of law, or probably through both, and 

 the mere official can do only what the people 

 authorize and empower him to do. 



Wm. Creighton Woodward 



Washington, D. C. 



BCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The June number (volume 14, number 9) 

 of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical 

 Society contains the following papers: Eeport 



