110 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



frighten any but the most callous. And because it 

 is my purpose not to create sensational effect, not 

 to draw lurid pictures, but to make a calm appeal 

 for constructive, remedial work, I would gladly omit 

 it if I could. But it belongs to the description of 

 conditions as they are, and I have no right to suppress 

 it. If the transmission of diseases like tuberculosis, 

 typhoid, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and others by such 

 means as I have indicated were rare, so that the 

 risk could be regarded as practically non-existent; 

 if the cases of infection by such means were so few 

 that they could be ignored, — I would most gladly 

 have omitted this painful catalogue of terrors. But, 

 as we shall presently see, such is not by any means 

 the case. It will be necessary for us to give careful 

 attention to a body of well-authenticated evidence 

 which proves that the dangers of milk-borne diseases 

 are very real and too numerous to be Ughtly passed 

 over. 



But before we proceed to the consideration of the 

 part which milk plays in the dissemination of disease, 

 at the risk of some repetition, I desire to warn the 

 reader against being frightened into a state of un- 

 necessary panic by the enormous bacterial contpnt 

 of milk indicated by some of the figures used in this 

 discussion. To most lay readers the word "bacteria" 

 immediately suggests disease, and to permit that 

 impression to remain would give a wholly false 



