THE MILK QUESTION 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



Looked at from one angle the milk question is only one 

 small part of the pure-food problem. The pure-food prob- 

 lem, in turn, is only one chapter of the great book of hy- 

 giene and sanitation. From this view-point the milk ques- 

 tion seems a limited, even a contracted subject, but a 

 deeper insight into it discloses the fact that it has depth 

 and breadth. It pervades the whole domain of preventive 

 medicine and touches many economic and social forces. 

 Clean milk is a vital problem touching humanity in every 

 phase of its social fabric. It is a live and burning topic 

 of the day. Finally, it illustrates, better than any single 

 subject, many of the fundamental factors in preventive 

 medicine. 



During the course of these lectures I shall have many 

 pleasant things to say about milk, I hope to be able to 

 show that the making of clean milk is an ideal worthy of 

 the best endeavors of any man. I shall also have many 

 unpleasant things to relate about milk. It may seem at 

 times that undue emphasis is placed upon disagreeable and 

 distasteful facts, but it should be remembered that if it 

 were not for these facts there would be no milk question. 



Why we have a milk question 



In the beginning we must ask ourselves this pertinent 

 query : Why do we have a milk question? Why all this fuss 

 about milk and milk products? We do not have a bread 

 question, a grain question, a fruit question, or»a vegetable 

 question — these substances also represent standard 



