THE MILK SUPPLY OF CHICAGO 181 
is made after a reasonable lapse of time. If no improvement 
has been made, the milk is excluded until such time as the 
rules and regulations are complied with. 
In addition there are four ‘‘field platers’’, whose duties 
consist in making bacterial tests on pasteurizing equipments 
as to efficiency. These men travel from plant to plant con- 
tinually. 
One of the larger companies maintains its own system of 
inspection. One inspector is located at each plant, and visits 
each farm delivering milk to that plant at least once every 
month. Cooperating with these men, this company has on 
its staff a corps of veterinarians, who have direct charge of 
the elaborate inspection system of this concern. 
The city is also divided into inspection districts, fifteen in 
number, with one inspector in each district. These men inspect 
the various milk establishments throughout the city and take 
chemical and bacterial samples of the various milk products 
for analysis at the city laboratories. 
The city of Chicago maintains a laboratory for the examina- 
tion of milk and cream samples. During the year 1916, this 
laboratory examined 44,000 samples of milk and cream chemi- 
eally, and 10,000 samples bacteriologically. 
On the whole the milk situation has improved in Chicago in 
late years from certain points of view. The Health Depart- 
ment is continually making strenuous efforts to insure a safe 
supply by eliminating as rapidly as possible establishments 
that are substandard from a sanitary standpoint. 
During the last 15 years, according to Dr. W. A. Evans, 
former Health Commissioner, the baby death rate has been 
cut in two. The typhoid death rate in 1917 was 1.6 per thous- 
and, the lowest of any large city in the world. 
