PRESENT STATUS OF THE PASTEURIZATION OF MILK O 
Again, Capps and Miller (17), who studied the Chicago epidemic of 
septic sore throat, traced it to a dairy where the milk was heated by 
the flash process at 160° F. On certain dates they found that there 
was a pronounced failure to heat the milk properly and that following 
these dates there were outbreaks of septic sore throat. These facts, 
together with the fact that no outbreak occurred among the children 
of the Michael Reese Hospital, where efficient pasteurization was 
practiced, led these investigators to believe that final responsibility 
for the epidemic rested on inadequate and unreliable pasteurization. 
Bray (16), who studied an epidemic of tonsillitis among tuberculosis 
patients, traced the epidemic to a milk supply from one farm. Forty 
cases of tonsillitis resulted among 400 people. As soon as the epidemic 
broke out the milk was pasteurized, and after that only one case 
appeared. 
Knowlton (42) reported in 1926 that Connecticut had suffered one 
milk-borne septic sore throat outbreak per year for the last three 
years. Such infections ceased when the distribution of raw milk was 
stopped, either by stopping the sale of milk or by pasteurizing. In 
1928, two outbreaks of septic sore throat were reported in Massa- 
chusetts (13, 38, 44, 49, 62). The source of the Lee outbreak was 
traced to an infected cow, and the Charlton outbreak was traced to 
a dairyman and his family. It was concluded that the best way to 
prevent such outbreaks is to pasteurize all milk. McKay and Hard- 
man (45) also report a severe epidemic of septic sore throat in Ontario 
which was spread through the use of raw milk. Bigelow and Forsbeck 
(12) conclude that the eventual obliteration of milk-borne disease 
depends more on pasteurization than on any other single factor. 
Further evidence that pathogenic streptococci are killed by pas- 
teurization was presented by the results obtained by Ayers, Johnson, 
and Davis (8), who found in their work that 27 strains of these 
organisms were always killed by being heated at 140° F. for 30 minutes. 
Epidemics of scarlet fever have been traced to milk supplies, and 
in such cases pasteurization has been resorted to, with apparently 
satisfactory results, as a means of safeguarding the public health. 
Pasteurization is of value from a commercial standpoint, in that it 
increases the keeping quality of the milk and assists in preventing 
financial losses caused by souring. This is a collateral advantage, 
but pasteurization should not be relied upon to take the place of 
efforts to produce high-quality milk. At the present time, pasteuri- 
zation is the best process for killing pathogenic bacteria in milk on a 
commercial scale. 
The need of safeguarding the general milk supply is amply proved 
by the numerous epidemics traced to milk. Trask (58) reported 179 
epidemics of typhoid fever from 1881 to 1907, of which 107 were in 
the United States; 51 epidemics of scarlet fever, 25 of which were in 
this country; and 23 epidemics of diphtheria from 1879 to 1907, of 
which 15 occurred in the United States. Table 1, compiled by the 
United States Public Health Service 3 shows the number of milk- 
borne epidemics reported in the United States for the years 1924 to 
1930. 
3 Frank L. C . the public health service mile sanitation program. U.S. Pub. Health Serv., p. 3. 
1932. [Mimeographed.] 
