164 
Of the theoretical objections, one frequently advanced in written 
or spoken arguments and placarded at model dairy farm exhibits is, 
“ Pure milk is better than purified milk.” That maj be true ; but 
how can pure milk be obtained in sufficient quantity to supply our 
larger cities and at what cost? 
Milk to be desirably clean must be obtained from especially well- 
equipped dairy farms and handled entirely by highly skilled and 
highly conscientious or closely guarded persons. The cost of install- 
ing such equipment and the employment of such a class of labor 
would have to be met by a decided increase in the price of milk, 
while pasteurization — certainly if done on a large scale — should not 
increase the price of milk more than a small fraction of a cent on 
the quart. 
Another objection to the pasteurization of milk is that the heat 
does not remove the objectionable bacteria, but simply kills them, so 
that the consumer gets the dead bacteria anyhow. That is true; 
but does it not appear safer to ingest these dead bacteria than to 
take into the alimentary canal the same bacteria living, which may 
continue to multiply and generate an increasing amount of products 
harmful to the human organism? No reasonable advocate of pas- 
teurization can hold that grossly dirty milk should be used as a food, 
either pasteurized or unpasteurized, the aim being to get milk as 
pure as practicable and then purify it to a point of safety. Milk 
containing only 10 bacteria to the cubic centimeter would not be safe 
if some of those bacteria were typhoid bacilli. 
Another seemingly entirely theoretical objection to pasteurization 
is that the heat changes the milk in some way so that it induces cer- 
tain diseases, such as scurvy and rickets, or lowers the resistance of 
persons using it so that they are more liable to certain infections, 
particularly intestinal diseases. The vast bulk of reliable evidence 
so far recorded on this subject indicates that this objection is not 
supported by facts, while there is constantly accumulating indis- 
putable evidence that there is much sickness caused by organisms in 
raw milk, which organisms would be destroyed by pasteurization. 
A removable objection to the pasteurization of milk is that the 
heat destroys the lactic acid producing organisms which cause the 
“ natural souring ” of milk, and leaves organisms which produce 
other kinds of fermentation (“putrefaction”) to flourish. Should 
this objection prove, by further study, to be valid, it could be met 
readily by adding to the milk after it is pasteurized some pure cul- 
ture of lactic acid forming organisms. 
It seems that in pasteurization we have a practical, unobjection- 
able, immediately needed remedy, while in the necessary measures 
to obtain a pure milk supply for our larger cities we have but a 
hope for the future. 
