2 THE MILK QUESTION 



articles of diet. The answer is simple. We have a milk 

 question because milk is apt to be dangerous to health. In 

 fact, the milk question as we understand it to-day began 

 only when it was shown that impure milk is apt to convey 

 disease. This alone would be sufficient reason, but in 

 addition we have several other important facts. One is 

 that we cannot do without milk. It is true that several 

 large nations comprising millions of people get along rea- 

 sonably well without the use of the milk of the cow or of 

 any of oiu* mammalian friends — rather our domesticated 

 slaves. Western civilization, however, has come to depend 

 upon cow's milk as an essential article of diet for children 

 and it has become a very important article of diet for 

 adults; it is therefore no overstatement for us to say that 

 milk is a necessary article of diet. " 



The next important reason why we have a milk question 

 is that milk is the most difficult of aU our standard articles 

 of diet to obtain and handle in a safe and satisfactory man- 

 ner. It requires scrupulous care from pasture to pail, and 

 from pail to palate. It is the most difficult of all our foods 

 to gather, handle, transport, and deliver in a fresh, clean, 

 safe, and satisfactory manner. Furthermore, milk decom- 

 poses more quickly than any other food. It spoils even 

 more quickly than fresh fruit and berries. 



A further reason why we have a milk problem is because 

 most milk is consumed raw. In fact, milk is the only im- 

 portant nitrogenous animal food commonly used without 

 cooking. Possibly ninety per cent of all our food is first 

 cooked. We have recently come to realize that uncooked 

 articles such as water, milk, oysters, lettuce, etc., may con- 

 vey infection. Cooking destroys germs. The disinfecting 

 action to which food is subjected during cooking is one of 

 the principal advantages of that process. Therefore, the 

 sanitarian regards cooking as the most important hygienic 

 safeguard that has ever been introduced by man for his 

 protection. 



