NOVEMBER 26, 1897. 
the United States of $238,500,000 per an- 
num from one of the so-called prevent- 
able diseases. Reduce the prevalence of 
this single disease one-half, which has 
been accomplished in England, and the 
oft-recurring question: ‘‘How is it our 
fathers got along without these so-called 
modern improvements?” will be satis- 
factorily answered from an economic point 
of view. 
Another subject which deserves special 
attention is the question of pure foods and 
drugs. It would lead me entirely too far 
even to touch upon all the gross frauds and 
their serious consequences which are daily 
perpetrated, but permit me to refer to a very 
universal article of food, viz., milk. An- 
alyses of milk sold in New York City 
showed an average dilution with 33% of 
water, the fraud amounting to $10,000 per 
day. The State Inspector found 12% of 
water added and 20% of cream removed. 
The results in St. Louis, Chicago and this 
and every other city are similar, and indi- 
eate the desirability of stringent laws gov- 
erning the milk traffic as a protection to 
the pocket of the consumer; but when we 
remember that Dr. Busey and the writer 
have collected and tabulated 138 epidemics 
of typhoid fever, 74 of scarlet fever and 28 
epidemics of diphtheria, and that an analy- 
sis of the evidence showed that the poison 
of these diseases may reach the milk by 
soakage of the germs into the well water 
with which the utensils are washed, or by 
the intentional dilution with infected water ; 
that the infection can be conveyed by ani- 
mals wading in sewage-polluted water, or 
by the dairy employes acting as nurses, or 
suffering themselves from some mild infec- 
tion while continuing their usual duties, or 
are convalescent from the disease ; and that 
infection has taken place through the 
agency of scrubbing brushes, flies and other 
insects, exposure of the milk in or near to 
the sick rooms, or washing the patients with 
SCIENCE. 
797 
the same cloth used in wiping the dairy 
utensils, we see at once that dairies 
should be under sanitary control to prevent 
the propagation of disease by infected milk. 
This should include inspection of the dairy 
stock by competent veterinarians, so that 
the milk of animals suffering from bovine 
tuberculosis, erysipelas, anthrax, pleuro- 
pneumonia, foot and mouth disease, septic 
and other fevers, specific enteritis, rabies, 
tetanus, garget and other inflammatory 
conditions of the teats and udder may be 
excluded from the supply. Milk may also 
be rendered unfit for use by reason of im- 
proper food and care of the animal, or while 
the animal is being treated with powerful 
remedial agents. It is interesting to note 
that of the 240 milk epidemics collected by 
us, 187 were reported by English, 31 by 
American and 9 by Scandinavian observers ; 
8 came from German, 3 from Australian, 
and 1 each from French and Swiss sources. 
And right here it is suggested that the in- 
frequency of milk-typhoid in France and 
Germany is due to the fact that milk is 
rarely used in its raw state on the Conti- 
nent of Hurope, and the germs are destroyed 
by sterilization. 
The first movement towards securing 
comprehensive legislation against the adul- 
teration of foods and drugs in this country 
was made in 1879. This is all the more 
surprising because Dr. Mann in his Medical 
Sketches of 1812 remarks that “ the bread 
on the Niagara was made of damaged flour, 
such as was either not nutritious or abso- 
lutely deleterious.” It was believed also 
that the flour contained in some instances 
an earthy substance, and that this adulter- 
ating substance was ‘plaster of paris.’ Again, 
during the Civil War, as early as in the 
winter of 1861-62, an extract of coffee 
furnished the troops in the vicinity of Alex- 
andria produced nausea and vomiting in 
those who used it, and subsequently a gov- 
ernment contractor, for having practiced 
