September 12, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



375 



cultures of organisms of all the ordinary types 

 Mhieh can be maintained under cultivation. 

 Pathogenic forms will be sent only to properly 

 qualified persons. ' ' The value of the proposed 

 collection was quickly appreciated. Cultures from 

 all over the United States and Canada have 

 been contributed freely. In all, 45 different labo- 

 ratories have sent in cultures, and arrangements 

 have been made for exchange with Professor 

 Kraus, of Vienna, who now has charge of the 

 famous Krai collection. On December 1, 1912, the 

 eoUeetion included 578 strains representing 374 

 different named types, and in the list, which has 

 been printed and may be obtained on application, 

 are most of the important pathogenic and non- 

 pathogenic species which have been definitely de- 

 scribed. 



During the period of somewhat less than two 

 years, from January 1, 1911, to December 1, 1912, 

 the laboratory distributed to 122 different colleges 

 and research laboratories of the United States and 

 Canada 1,700 different cultures, in every ease 

 without charge. It is the policy of the depart- 

 ment to send cultures free to all teaching labora- 

 tories of college and university grade, and to all 

 research laboratories, whether cultures are sent to 

 us in return or not. Many cultures have been 

 called for by teaching laboratories for use in their 

 class work. The most important service the labo- 

 ratory has been able to render, however, has been 

 in furnishing authentic cultures to investigators 

 who have been making a study of certain special 

 groups, and the published papers which have re- 

 sulted, in which various detailed characters of the 

 museum types are described, of course greatly in- 

 crease the value of the collection. 



DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY 



Transportation of Milk: M. C. Schroeder, M.D., 

 assistant director, Research Laboratory, Depart- 

 ment of Health, City of New York. 

 The problem of the transportation of milk is 

 influenced chiefly by the necessity of subjecting 

 it to the long or the short haul. Most of the 

 smaller cities and towns receive milk from a dis- 

 tance of ten miles, so that milk is transported in 

 wagons only and is delivered to the customer quite 

 fresh. Here, icing during the warm, and protec- 

 tion during the cold, together with frequent inspec- 

 tion of the delivery wagons, and the taking of 

 samples for bacterial tests solve the problem fairly 

 well. New York receives about 30,000 quarts a 

 day from about 145 such outlying farms. The 



greater bulk of the milk, about 1,800,000 quarts, 

 is brought from distances of 50 to 300 miles. This 

 milk is first drawn to the receiving station, mixed 

 in tanks, simply aerated, or pasteurized and cooled, 

 bottled and canned, and shipped in refrigerator 

 cars holding 272 to 375 40-quart cans, or from 450 

 to 700 boxes of 12 quarts each. The most impor- 

 tant question in the long haul is the refrigeration. 

 Two methods of icing have been utilized. Direct 

 (crushed ice being placed upon cans and bottles), 

 second "indirect" (the ice being placed in boxes 

 called bunkers at the end of the car). The bunk- 

 ers are found to be too small for the ice necessary 

 to keep the milk cold if the weather is hot or the 

 journey long. Milk comes over 15 railroads and 

 enters New York through eight terminals. Trains 

 start in the country from 7 a.m. on, and arrive at 

 the terminal from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. if not delayed. 

 At the terminal it is loaded in large trucks and is 

 drawn one or more miles to pasteurizing or dis- 

 tributing centers. Here it is handled and sorted 

 and finally loaded into smaller wagons for delivery. 

 The milk supply of New York is safeguarded from 

 bacterial contamination as follows : by annual 

 sanitary inspection of the farms on which the 

 milk is produced, and the more frequent reports of 

 the farmers delivering the milk a& to the condi- 

 tions existing of production and care, by inspect- 

 ing the icing of the milk and the conditions of 

 the cans and bottles being shipped back to the 

 creamery; by inspecting the conditions under 

 which it is sold; it also seeks to detect the condi- 

 tion of production, transportation and sale by 

 taking bacteriological samples of milk from cream- 

 eries, at the railroad terminals, from wagons, pas- 

 teurizing plants, hospitals, stores, etc. Thus last 

 year the number of samples taken and analyzed 

 was 61,142. For the control of the milk supply, 

 the Department of Health has only 24 inspectors 

 for about 44,000 farms, 30 inspectors for the five 

 boroughs and 4 inspectors taking bacteriological 

 samples for both city and country. 



Prohlems in Sanitary Milk Classification, ivith 

 special reference to the Experience in New 

 Yorlc City: Ernst J. Lederle, Ph.D., Commis- 

 sioner of Health, City of New York. 

 In contradistinction to most other large munici- 

 palities, New York City undertakes practically the 

 entire supervision of its milk supply from the cow 

 to the consumer, notwithstanding that nearly all 

 the 45,000 farms on which this milk supply is 

 produced are located outside the city, and more 

 than 6,000 of them outside the state. The milk 



