170 PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MILK HYGIENE 
ing on the opposite side from the body. This will protect 
the milk from contamination by cows switching the tail, 
splashing of manure or urine, and dirt falling from the 
clothing of the milker. The milker should wash his hands 
again before milking another cow and should dry them 
well on a clean towel. Small, individual towels, about 
10 x 10 inches, which can be used once and then thrown 
aside for washing, are much more desirable than a large 
towel used in common by several milkers. 
Soiled hands are a prolific source of bacteria in milk. 
As many as 45,000,000 bacteria have been found on one 
hand of a farm laborer. Washing and drying the hands 
will reduce the number of bacteria 75 per cent. or more, 
and also decrease the danger from chronic typhoid bacilli 
carriers. Experiments indicate that careful drying is 
quite as important as thorough washing, fewer organisms 
remaining after careful drying than when the hands are 
rinsed in an antiseptic solution after washing and are not 
carefully dried. 
Milking should be done with dry hands. When the 
hands are wet the moisture assists in loosening the epi- 
dermal cells and dirt from the surface of the teat, and this 
material gradually moves down to the end of the teat 
and drops off into the milk pail. The practice of wetting 
the hands with milk when beginning to milk is to be con- 
demned because this milk, after being mixed with the 
dirt on the teats, drops off into the pail. 
Sometimes dairymen claim that it is sufficient to wash 
the hands before beginning to milk, saying that if the 
udders are clean the hands will not become soiled. This 
would be true if the udders were bacteriologically clean 
and if the milker did not touch anything but the clean 
teats of the udder. But the milker sometimes touches 
