390 MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS 
only as a guide to direct the efforts of the health officer, but to confirm the con- 
clusions arrived at from an inspection of the dairies and dairy farms. 
A review of the literature with regard to the bacterial analysis of 
milk indicates a confused condition. There seem to be two distinct 
views with regard to the significance of the number of bacteria in milk. 
That side supporting the view that the bacterial content shcald not be 
used is made up of those who are interested in the production of milk and 
possibly the ‘‘ protection ” of the farmer. The other side is supported 
by well-known physicians and public health officials who have been 
engaged for some time in protecting the consuming public from dirty 
foods. Park and Williams (1910) have shown a close relationship 
between infant death rate and the number of bacteria in milk. These 
data were secured after careful experimentation and observation. 
Numerous data have been secured in this connection when comparing 
the value of raw and pasteurized milk in infant feeding. In essentially 
all of the cases, the pasteurized milk has been shown to be superior and 
this is probably not all due to destruction of certain harmful bacteria. 
A milk or any other food which contains large numbers of bacteria, is 
more liable to contain undesirable forms than one with a low count. 
If the streptococci are of any sanitary significance and there are data 
on record which support the theory that they are, they are more liable 
to be present in milks with a large number of bacteria. Breed and 
Brew (1917), in studying the control of market milk by the microscopic 
examination, found that one-fifth of all the milk which contained 
bacteria in excess of 1,000,000 per cubic centimeter contained large 
numbers of streptococci. They state that, “So far as was deter- 
mined, all of the milk of this type was originally infected from 
the udders of some one or more cows in a herd.” In this case, then, 
the number of the bacteria in the milk was closely related to undesira- 
ble conditions at the source of production. The greater part of the 
argument against the bacterial count seems to rest upon data which 
have been produced at several experiment stations to show that many 
of the barn conditions which have, in the past, been supposed to be 
very important, are not related to the number of bacteria in the milk 
when it reaches the consumer. These investigators argue that the 
quality of city milk is too complex a problem to be solved by the con- 
sideration of any one factor. They, therefore, put down the four 
essential factors as food value, healthfulness, cleanliness and keeping 
quality. From a bacteriological viewpoint the element of cleanliness 
is the most important because the others may depend upon this one. 
This element is supposed to be measured by the sediment or visible dirt. 
