GERMS IN RELATION TO MILK 25 



to furnish milk subject to their requirements and inspection which 

 should be known as " Certified Milk " when approved by the com- 

 mission. 



Certified milk is that produced under a legal contract between 

 a medical milk commission and a dairyman to conform to certain 

 recognized requirements. The name was registered in U. S. Patent 

 Office in 1904 with the understanding that it should be used by- 

 medical milk commissions but not by dairymen not supplying milk 

 to medical milk commissions. 



New York State has passed a law preventing the use of the 

 word certified milk except by permission of medical commissions 

 formed by county medical societies which are organized and char- 

 tered by the State Medical Society. Similar laws should be passed 

 in other states and offenders should be prosecuted. 



Examinations of certified milk should be made by chemist, 

 bacteriologist and veterinarian (stock and stabling, etc.) twice 

 monthly and members of commission once monthly.* 



Any person who pretends to produce clean milk must submit 

 to the germ standard, as this is the best means of estimating purity 

 "which we now possess. Exactly what that standard should be has, 

 however, not been generally agreed upon. It is not unusual to find 

 10,000 germs as the maximum number per cubic centimeter per- 

 mitted in certain localities for certified milk. The standard of 

 Albany for certified milk has been' 80,000; for Rochester and New 

 York City, 30,000; for Philadelphia and Milwaukee, 10,000. The 

 XT. S. Agricultural Department standard is 10,000, and this should 

 now be considered the maximum, as it was originally established 

 by Coit. It is perfectly possible to> produce milk which shall not 

 contain more than a few hundred, or, at most, not more than 2,000 

 to 4,000 germs to the cubic centimeter without great expense, if 

 every precaution to secure cleanliness be observed in milking and 

 handling the milk. At Newburgh, N. Y., certified milk has been. 



* For blank forms to be used in these examinations, see p. 204. 



