Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-22
SANITATION AND MILK
Topics Before REPRESENTATIVES
OF Boards of Health.
RAILWAY CAR FUMlGATION
Statement by an Official of the Pull
man Company.
CRITICISM OF PHYSICIANS
Association Members to Elect Officers,
Call at the White House and
Visit Filtration Plant.
RAILWAY CAR FUMlGATI0N
CRITICISM OF PHYSICIANS

Car sanitation and milk supply were the
subjects under discussion at the meeting
OF the sanitary conference of the state
boards of health today. There was a rep
resentative Of the Pullman company pres
ent and he told of the things that were be-
ing done in the way OF fumigating and
cleaning the cars. and some of the doctors
took hand and told of the things that
were not being done and that they would
IKE to see done. DR.. Henry NJ. Bracken
or st. Paul, Mimi, opened the discussion
with general talk on the condition of cars
and the necessity of supervision as to the
cleanliness of the cars and their fixtures
and the prevention of contagion either from
the passengers or the bedding and other ap-
piiances they used
DIR. L. R. Crowder the superintendent of
sanitation of the Pullman car lines, then
toid what was being done in that line He
said the main question was the successful
Immigration of the cars and the cleanliness
OF the toilet rooms and Iavatories These
were washed down regularly and disinfect-
ants used.
AZ to the general fumigation of the cars
a great many plans had been tried. The
simplest and most effective he said. is to
spread the blankets and curtains, with as
fnuch SURFACE exposed as possible. over the
curtain poles, and then disinfect them and
the whole interior of the car with Tornado
hyde generated from three buckets put in
the aisle of the car
This Immigration was practiced regularly
i'll all the cars once month, and In cars
running into the Adirondacks to Denver
sc uthern California and other consumptive
resorts the disinfectfon Is more frequent
In proportion to the danger OF contagion
Some were fumigated every day: others
every run. or three times a week
Others Who Discussed Topic.
There was further discussion partici-
pated in by DIR. Rosenau of the United
States marine hospital service and DR.. C.
A Probst of Columbus, Ohio. The discus
sion was largely as to the disposal Of Stops
and the cleaning of spittoons. while Dr.
Roserau spoke particularly of the need of
dlilerent arrangement of the lavatories
He said that the wash basin In the Pull
man was the most insanitary feature of
the whole car. He said 1t was cleaner and
more satisfactory In every way to wash
under running water than 1t was to use
the wash basin, and that it actually used
less water in this way than it did to fill
the basin, wash the hands, wash out the
basin, and wash the face and then wash
the basin out again. But, he said, though
there were a number of simple automatic
stop taps the market. the railroads ad-
hered to the old scheme of having the
water run from under the edge Of a ledge,
where 1t was impossible to wash your
hands without filing the basin
The disposition of the whole question was
made by the appointment of committee
consisting OF DR.. Bracken, DR.. Probst and
Health Officer w. c. Woodward of Wash
ington to confer with a committee of rail-
road men and report at the next meeting
OF the assoeia ton on the result of the con-
ference.
Family Physician Negligent.
DR.. Swarts OF Providence. R. l., opened
the discussion of the milk supply. He said
the supply OF cities was almost universally
unsatisfactory from a sanitary viewpoint,
but that while it should be expected that
the family physician would be the one to
insist on clean milk and help the health
authorities in enforcing all necessary regu-
lations, they were in many cases as igno-
rant and careless in this particular as the
layman In this connection he said he had
sent out 125 letters to doctors in his juris-
diction and got surprisingly meage1
amount of information. Out of the 125
twelve knew the name of their own milk
man, principally through signing checks to
pay the milk bill Seven of them had been
TO the dairy farms whence their milk came,
and some of these were able to report that
the dafries were tolerably clean Six of
them would be willing to pay, say, cents
quart more for certified clean, pure milk,
but of these three said they would be will
ing to do only till the babies in their
families ceased using the bottle.
Conditions in Boston
DIR. Harrington of Boston said he knew
the bad conditions in n good many Of the
dairies and was satisfied that maximum
bacterial standard should be enforced when
the milk was offered for sale He said 1t is.
of course, impossible for a health officer to
go into another state to supervise the con-
ditton of the diaries. and much of the milk
that was used in some cities came from
adjoining states, but he said It was posi-
BILE to prohibit the entrance of milk to
state when the dairy conditions in the state
of origin were not satisfactory. This had
actually been done in the state of Mas
sachusetts, and worked we'll. He recon-
mended It In bringing recalcitrant inter-
state dairymen to time.
The convention will elect officers before 1t
adjourns, and will call on the Pres-
ident Friday. Many of the members want
also to take trip to the Washington Ill
tration plant. and 1t is evident they will
have a busy week before them
NnIr DrAnV HAn mn1