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UK SUPPLY FOR CITtESTO the layman the medical profession may seem idealistic demanding things that are not practical, yet we are on the firing line ind certainly see the damage result-ng, and can usually figure up the ul-imate cost of carelessness.In the demands we make on the lairymen we feel that we are not isking more than we have already lone.That there will be an increase in .he,cost of milk we know. We also mow that there can he an increase in cost of almost any other com-nodity without serious remonstrance, ret there are loud, wild outcries of ‘trust” the moment a progressive lairyman declares that his production 3f pure, clean milk means an increase in cost of 1 or 2 cents per quart.If, however, the consumer was told plainly that cheaper milk means iisease germs and dirt, I do not think there would toe any complaint about the increased cost, which should be cheerfully borne by the consumer.Prom a medical standpoint we ask: That there be clean milk with an absence of large numbers of germs and entire freedom from pathological germs or the germs which produce disease; a constant nutritive value of known chemical composition with a uniform relation between the fats, sugars, and albumens; an unvarying resistance to early fermentative changes, so that it may be kept with-Dut extraordinary care.In our first requirement, I say absence of large numbers of bacteria, because aseptic milk is practically impossible and would add a needless expense to the dairyman. Also it would appear from experiments that certain germs are comparatively harmless in small numbers and may be even beneficial.That milk should be entirely free from disease producing germs is shown conclusively by a summary of epidemics prepared by Busey and Kober, of which I cite only a few to show' the most intense need of this requirement.A typhoid epidemic in Clifton, England, showed 244 cases, of which 2S0 came from one dairy.A scariet fever epidemic in Boston in 1907 produced 227 cases. Of these 195 came from the same dairy and occurred in four days' time.A diphtheria epidemic occurred in Ashtabula. Of 111 cases, with 23 deaths, 100 cases came from families that used milk from one dairy.Statistics on tubercular infections directly transmitted are harder to find, yet we can be on the safe side by taking the conclusions of several able workers who have recently gathered proof.Anderson in 233 samples of milk showed that 6.72 per cent of the samples contained tubercular germs ,'irulent to guinea pigs.Trosh examined 7,097 samples of market milk and found tubercular germs in 594.Schroeder says whatever chances we ourselves may take as adults, yet we have no right to neglect our duty to children. When we examine the reports of a host of investigators we find, though there may be two morphologically distinct types of the tubercular bacillus, that they are connected by transition forms, and if the two commoner types (human and bovine, but neither restricted to man or cattle) really differ in an important way, it is that the type commoner in cattle is of much higher disease producing virulence than that common to man.* *This shows why milk should be produced only from tuberculin tested cows, and the more so since Salmon, after a careful study of all facts in regard to the tuberculin reaction on cattle, says: It is an accurate methodof determining whether the animal has tuberculosis.”That by its use the diseased animal is detected and removed from the herd, thereby protecting other cattle.That tuberculin has no ill effect on the healthy animal.Already we see the progressive dairyman taking advantage of this test. Let us help him along by demanding it for all our milch cows.That milk must have a constant nutritive value and definite chemical composition is already recognized by law for protecting the consumer from fraud and dangerous dilutants and preservatives and also for the use of infants. Without a definite standard it would be impossible correctly to modify milk.The certified milk commission has adopted a standard of 3.50 per cent proteids—3.50 to 4.50 per centt fats and 4 per cent sugar. Should milk for drinking purposes show a higher per I cent fat than this it should be so I labeled or enough milk of lower com-j position should toe introduced to bring | the food value down.I To obtain the ideal milk for infant : feeding we should take one step far | ther and demand that the dairyman | use cows which produce a small size I fat globule in their milk..| Our third requirement, an unvary-| ing resistance to early fermentative ' changes, demands as little handling ! as possible.| Rosenau experimentally shows that | clumping or clustering is one of the factors that cause an apparent de-! crease in number of gerjns. Milk that j is shaken or stirred vigorously shows I more germs growing on culture media, i The next reason for fewer handlings ! is that each handling only adds an-I other source of infection.Milk should be subjected to a steady mol temperature, apparently best iround 40 degrees Fahrenheit.Rosenau found that freezing milk tor 10 minutes had no effect on the ;erm destroying power, that freezing tor 24 hours before inoculating with jaeillus typhosus had no influence on its restraining power as far as the oacillus was concerned, but apparently lessens this power for the bacillus forming lactic acid.Yet freezing does produce changes in milk, for each winter we see cases 3f food poisoning in infants which can be attributed to thawed frozen milk, hence doctors usually warn mothers against permitting babies to have such milk.That it should not be allowed to stay at a temperature much higher is shown by Frendenreich, who sutoject-sd a sample of milk containing 153,000 germs to the cubic inch to a temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit and one hour later found it to contain 539,750 germs, and at the end of 25 hours to contain 85,000,000 germs.The effects on milk of higher degrees of heat sufficient to kill bacteria (which is conceded to be with few exceptions around 140 degrees to 165 degrees Fahrenheit) is still the subject of much controversy.It is generally agreed that milk has a germicidal action, and that this action is present only in raw milk, and continues according to Heinemann for eight to- 10 hours.Boiling or heating to about 80 degrees centigrade destroys this action, lesser degrees of heat vary with the micro-organism to be destroyed.The effects of heat 140 degrees to 165 degrees Fahrenheit on the various ferments is also a subject of controversy, and the bulk of the evidence 3eems to be that pasteurization done in scientific laboratories and by ultra scientific men is not in the least injurious, yet in my opinion commercial pasteurization of a dirty milk supply is to be condemned as is the dirty milk supply.Mildly stating it, it is far from the ideal method and I think it is positively harmful in the manner in which it is now commercially carried on.With the amount of advertising that pasteurized milk has received, expended on demanding clean milk, we certainly would be closer to our goal, which is, Clean, Pure Milk.Many times do I hear, when baby is taken ill with enteritis, and the milk is investigated, the mother reply, “O, it cannot be from the milk, because the label says Pasteurized.” Such is the false sense of security which is now’ developed that the mother is often absolutely careless with her part of feeding pure milk to the babe. And it is only too late when she realizes the real import of commercially pasteurized milk. Why have nottaught her in the beginning tel tfmnand pure milk?Having a desire to see what was the condition of this pasteurized milk when it reached the babe, I had my assistant, Dr. W. P. Curtis, collect samples. These samples were taken directly from the baby’s bottle, with the exception of three taken from hospital, and taken during the last month, when the weather has been ideal to keep down germ growth, you can imagine what they might be during the warm summer months.For a three low count we found 3,440, 7,140, 22,540.For a three high count 2,580,330. 426,520, 864,640.Such a varying of counts certainly fails to Impress us with the efficiency of commercial pasteurization.In talking to the manager of one oi our larger pasteurizing plants, he gave the following description of theii method:’Our milk is first run through the separator to remove any sediment.” Imagine what the sediment of milk may he. Imagine our permitting any sediment of manure, dead flies, and hair in any other articles of food. Does this straining out of sediment and pasteurizing not tend to make the dairyman careless?Then when the milk enters the pasteurizer it has a temperature oi about 60 degrees. Just the tempera-ture that Frendenreich showed to produce 85,000,000. The^i heated to a temperature of 165 degrees for one and one-half minutes or two minutes, then run through a water cooler at 50. Rogers has recently shown that a temperature of 185 is the lowest at which this flash pasteurizing can be effective, yet I know from talking to various dairymen that they consider 165 degrees sufficient. Of course they have to for a higher temperature would destroy their cream line and make their milk a marked, disgraced, dirty milk and place it where it really belongs.Does that sound like a method warranting us physicians in recommending pasteurized milk, or does it not sound more like a commercial way of keeping milk sweet till it Can have a chance to kill some babe?Dr. Freeman of New York, after a careful study of milk from a medical standpoint, concludes that while milk is in no way changed by pasteurization for 40 minutes at 140 degrees, yet commercial pasteurization is to be condemned.-Dr. Roller’s work at Rochester certainly speaks for itself, and if I have his figures right, they certainly show a reduction in infant mortality far in excess of any figures yet shown by commercial pasteurization of a dirty milk, so that instead of contending and temporizing with improper pasteurization, or pasteurization of improperly procured milk, or impropei care of pasteurized milk, let us demand andwork for Pure. Clean Milk
Newspaper Details
Richmond Morning News
Richmond, Indiana, US
Sat, Apr 01, 1911
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Wendy S.
USA 17 Apr 2025
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