MEAT AND MILK INSPECTION. 
269 
its quota of germs with the innocent milk that is being prepared 
for food. 
If milk could be obtained perfectly free from bacteria, its 
keeping properties and its high.value as food would be assured 
but when we think of miliions of these germs in every gallon of 
commercial milk, any one of which may find a lodging place in 
our system, and cause our death, should we not be a little care¬ 
ful of the kind of germ we are devouring ? 
The milk standard is set at the following figures by this 
state: Twelve and one-half per cent, of total solids, 3 per cent 
of butter fat, specific gravity between 1.029 and 1.033. Specific 
gravity of skimmed milk should be from 1.032 to 1.037, and 
may be sold from cans plainly labeled “Skimmed Milk.” 
However, at this time we are not as much concerned about 
the per cent, of butter fat, whether we are buying the milk 
first drawn from the udder and letting the calf have the last 
and best, and whether the milk supply is drawn from a herd of 
pure bred Jerseys or just grade cows, but we are more concerned 
about the method of handling that milk, the healthiness of the 
animal producing it, and whether or no the man who milked 
that cow had any disease that could be transmitted to our family 
by means of that milk. 
Tuberculosis, typhoid fever, cholera infantum, diphtheria 
and scarlet fever are some of the dangers lurking in commercial 
milk. These dangers are perhaps greater in the use of milk 
than meat, for milk is commonly used in the raw state while 
many of the germs of meat are killed by the cooking of that 
meat. It is said that cholera infantum or milk diarrhoea causes 
one-fourth the deaths of all infants, while one-fifth of the in¬ 
fants are victims of tuberculosus milk. Is not this then a strong 
plea for universal inspection of milk ?* 
It is an easy matter to sit down and outline ideal conditions 
for the handling of milk, but the commercial aspect hinders the 
carrying out of such an ideal. When we consider that the milk, 
coming as it does in sharp competition with uninspected milk, 
and must be sold for a few cents a quart, we can realize why so 
