The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-02-06
MILK AND MICROBES.
A Fruitful Source OF the Ills Which
Afdict Humankind
Millions Of Bacteria IN . Thimbleful
Of the Lactoal Fluid - Protective
Measures Employed In All
the Large Cities.

Now. days, when there is an epidemic
anywhere Of typhoid fever, one Of the
first things which physicians do is to
inquire :nto the milk supply. This is
not because all such outbreaks are
traceable to impure malk. but because
milk has been found to be one of the
most fruitful sources of contagion.
Milk absorbs impurities readily with
out giving any truce Of their presence,
and it is enc of the few articles Of food
in common use which are not cooked
before beirg eaten For these reasons,
and because it is given freely to infants
and invalios, who are especially sus-
ceptible to disease, it is a dangerous
vehicle of contagion.
Careful experiments have shown that
milk freshly dawn from healthy cow
is practically sterile, that is, is free
from bacteria; hut before it reaches the
consumer, especially in the large cities,
it is subject to various kinds of con-
termination. Perhaps the stable or cow
is not clean, or the hands or the clothes
Of the man who luilks her are dirty.
The milk is transpo rted perhaps a hun
Jred and fifty miles; it is emptied and
mixed by different hands as it is dis
tributed from the contractor to the
mill1men, and by them to their GUS.
toners. and at every stage it is liable
to gather impurities. 1t reaches the
consumer SO or 4S hours after it leaves
the cow.
A thimb1efulI of mill has been found
often to contain millions of bacteria.
Most of these are harmless vegetable
germs, but among them sometimes are
germs of typhoid fever and tuberculosis.
Ii some one who handles the milk along
the route is afflicted with one of these
maJadies, the germs may be Transmitted
to become active a hundred miles away.
The protection of the milk supply is
one of the most difficult problems of
.ity life. Where there is a system of
inspection of milk, it usually extends no
further than tests to ascertain whether
there has been dilution with water; but
such adulteration is not nearly so seri-
Gus an evil as the transmission of dis
ease microbes.
To insure pure milk, it is essential
that there should be care atevery point
along the route. There nrnst be abso-
lutte cleanliness of the stable and the
cow and the persons who handle the
milk, and there should be as little delay
as possible in its delivery. i
There is a close connection between
impure milk and mortality among in
fants. Several years ago investigation
in Philadelphia showed that out of 49,,
900 children born in three years, nearly
one-fourth died before completing their
first year. In most instances death was
caused by diseases of the digestive or
gans, and the ratio of such cases was
highest among children whose food was
milk fed by hand.
The sterilization of milk, through the
agency of heat, removes this peril. A
rich New York merchant has for sew
eral summers supplied sterilized milk
to tenement house children, with an
immediate result in reducing the NOR
tally among them. Last summer the
w ~ oiOoiAy lie
In July, before the sterilized milk was
distributed, from IS to % per cent. OF
the deaths of children under two years
of age were from diarrheal diseases. In
August, with sterilized milk in use. the
percentage dropped first to 13, then to
IL and IL.
The possibility of preventing disease
by guarding against the transmission
of disease microbes is something that
we owe to modern science. Thirty years
ago, in such diseases as typhoid fever,
all that doctors could do was to treat
the individual case and prevent imme.
date contagion. Now it is possible to
check the disease at its source. No
where is the superiority Of prevention
over cure more manifest than here.
By the concerted action OF legisla-
lures and health authorities, and tho
wstchfulness of an intelligent public
sentiment, the knowledge which has
been gained of disease microbes can be
utilized to prevent their transmission
through milk or their vehicles OF con-
taCion.-Youth's COMPANION.