gressing steadily through every step of its manufacture to the final 
cleansing of the hands and garments of the employees who dispense 
this easily polluted foodstuff. 
Unfortunately for the good of the country at large, and judging 
from a cursory knowledge of ice cream manufactories in general and 
the reported findings of milk and cream supplies throughout the 
country, the conditions prevailing in Washington can not be 
accepted as unique. 
A study of the commercial ice cream of Philadelphia was made in 
the Bacteriological Laboratory of the city during 1905-6. (Bacterio- 
logical Study of Commercial Ice Cream. Pennington and Walter, 
New York Medical Journal. Vol. LXXXVI, No. 22, page 1013.) The 
examination in Philadelphia covered the number of organisms pres- 
ent, an approximate count of the leucocytes, the presence of strep- 
tococci morphologically and the determination ~of' their vegetative 
ability, the sanitary condition of the premises on which the ice cream 
was manufactured, the sanitary condition of the shop or dealer’s 
warehouse from which the cream and milk were obtained, and the 
bacteriological examination both numerically and for the presence of 
living streptococci in the cream and milk which entered into the 
sample of ice cream studied. 
In so far as the cleanliness of the premises and the product is con- 
cerned the above authors make the following statements : 
Sixty different ice cream makers were visited and their premises inspected. 
What constitutes a standard of cleanliness in the production of such food- 
stuff as ice cream depends very largely upon the inspector's ideas on the sub- 
ject. The very nature of the process — the mixture of ice and salt, wooden tubs 
for freezing, fruit flavoring, etc. — makes it a difficult matter to preserve immac- 
ulate surroundings even when interiors of utensils and constituents of the ice 
creams are strictly clean. The final division of these 60 different makers’ estab- 
lishments was made on the basis of four classes: (1) Clean; (2) fair; (3) 
dirty; (4) filthy. In rating them the building, drainage, opportunities for 
ventilation, conditions of walls, ceilings, windows, adjoining rooms or buildings, 
as well as the condition of the utensils, methods of cleaning, attempts at sterili- 
zation, etc., were taken into account. The results are as indicated, 
Division of 60 different establishments. 
Condition. 
! Number 
of estab- 
| lish- 
ments. 
Percent- 
age hav- 
ing strep- 
tococci 
in ice 
cream. 
Average 
! count of 
I organisms 
per cubic 
centimeter. 
Clean 
20 
90 
12, 460, 863 
Fair 
26 
77 
15, 857, 800 
Dirty 
6 
66 
22,491,833 
Filthy 
8 
75 
29, 225, 714 
