MEDICAL MILK COMMISSIONS AND CERTIFIED MILK. 9 
line. An unfoitimate feature has been that many of them have been 
operated at a financial loss, and this has had a demoralizing effect 
upon many dairymen, who have been led to believe that the produc- 
tion of clean milk necessitates the outlay of large sums of money in 
expensive equipment. 
SO-CALLED CERTIFIED MILK NOT CONTROLLED BY MILK COMMISSIONS. 
There are a few dairymen who sell their product under the name 
of certified milk who have no connection with the milk commissions. 
These, in some cases, certify to their own product, and in others 
samples are sent to a State experiment station or to some local chemist 
or bacteriologist for examination. Some dairymen in this class supply 
a very creditable product. There are others whose mi-Ik is of only 
ordinary quality. Here, again, the samples for analysis are usually 
taken by the dairyman himself from milk fresh from the cow and 
immediately iced and sent to the analyst. The analyst reports his 
results and >the dairyman uses them to advertise his product. This 
can not be looked upon as anything but a deception, as the consumer 
is given to understand that this is the analysis of the milk as it is 
delivered to him daily. It is only when medical milk commissions 
have' been organized and a plan of education has been started to 
create a demand for sanitary milk designed for infant feeding that 
there arises any danger of an impure milk being put on the market 
under such a label. It is manifestly unfair, therefore, that after a 
commission, serving without pay in the interest of the public, has 
created a feeling that " certified v milk means a safe, clean milk for 
infant feeding, some unprincipled dairyman should be able to prey 
on the ignorance of the public and supply an unsafe milk at a high 
price. Some steps should be taken by the milk commissions or by 
city or State officers to prevent such practices. Where milk is an 
article of interstate commerce, however, the national pure-food law 
covers misrepresentations of this character. 
LEGALIZATION OF THE TERM " CERTIFIED MILK." 
The State of Xew York has set a good example in passing a law 
for regulating the sale of certified milk. A portion of the law reads 
as follows : 
No person shall sell or exchange, or offer or expose for sale or exchange, as 
and for certified milk any milk which does not conform to the regulations pre- 
scribed by, and bear the certification of, a milk commission appointed by a 
county medical society organized under and chartered by the Medical Society of 
the State of New York aud which has not been pronounced by such authority to 
be free from antiseptics, added preservatives, and pathogenic bacteria in exces- 
sive numbers. All milk sold as certified milk shall be conspicuously marked 
with the name of the commission certifying it. 
4999°— Bull. 1—13 2 
