Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-23
DEMAND PURE MILK
PAPER BY Mr.. STRAUS PROPOSES
COMPULSORY STERILIZATION.

a dispatch from New York says: Some
fifty or sixty physicians half dozen health
officers and few lone laymen gathered
at the Academy of Medicine to discuss
the question of a clean milk supply
for New York city, at the request of the
Association for Improving the Condition of
the Poor. Entirely unofficial in character,
reaching no formulated conclusion, after
hours of discussion. other than set of res
olhtiOns which embodied the gst of the
ideas set forth informally. this conference
was nevertheless probably one of the most
remarkable ever assembled in this city to
consider one phase of city's health.
II contained physicians whose standing is
conceded to be the highest on questions con-
corning the health and care of infants, rep
resentatives of the health and charities de-
partments Of this state and city and repre-
sentatives, too, of other cities and of the
federal government.
Its results will come several months from
this meeting, when committees have digest
ed properly the discussion brought out yes
terday, have published it and Incorporated
its salient points into city ordinances and
state legislation, which may be adopted for
the safeguarding of the lives of infants in
congested tenement districts and the thou
sapds on thousands who acquire disease be-
cause of impure milk.
Committees were authorized at the session
last night which will cooperate with the
department of health, the County Medical
Society and the state department of heath
One large committee will be appointed by
George w. Wickersham. who presided at
the conference. and from it subcommittee
a committee of five also will be appointed
to formulate the work of the conference
and publish ii.
An Informal Resolution.
The conference itself at its night session
sanctioned an informal resolution sUbstan-
TALLY as follows:
1t is the sense of this conference that
First-The sale of SKINNED milk should
be permitted, but not for consumption by
infants and not in retail stores where whole
milk is sold
acknowledgements ton should not be made
compulsory. Commercial pasteurization has
some value, but not the same true pas
teuriZation.
both raw and pasteurlZed milk, and all milk
used should be clean. 1t is questionable
whether municipal depots are desirable
Much educational work is possible in con-
nection with milk depots; 1t should be d.
rected to the instruction of mothers and
other persons having care of infants in the
proper method of feeding infants and the
Importance Of cleanliness in their care and
feeding.
Fourth-Nothing should be sold in connec-
ton with milk except other dairy products
and sealed package ROOuS, WHere milk Is
sold in grocery stores separate booths
should be provided in which the milk is
kept free from contact with the other arti-
Giles dealt in. 1t is not practicable at pres
ent to prohibit the use of cans. The milk
should be required to be kept at tempera-
ture below fifty degrees Fahrenheit. All
bottles should be cleansed and exposed to
a boiling temperature for sufficient time
to destroy all pathological germs, and the
natural place would be at the creamery
where they are refilled. In model shops
provision should be made for sterilizin6
utensils at least to the degree OF boiling
them daily. Attendants should wear wash
able white suits and caps. both for clean
illness and the moral effect on those pur-
chasing milk
ent used are up TO the standards in use by
other states and the federal Department of
Agriculture. 1t would be advisable in con-
nection with the inspection for violations of
the sanitary code TO combine some form
of analysis for bacteria when a proper bac-
THEOLOGICAL standard has been evolved from
experiments with the city's milk supply.
In the city the number of inspectors at
the disposal OF the department of health is
approximately sufficient for the demands
in the districts within the state outside this
city there should be between sixty and
eighty inspectors to handle the work ade-
Quately.
Standardization on cleanliness should be
spread in every possible way among dairy
men. farmers and milk handlers. Mothers
should be trained to distinguish between
clean and impure milk. Milk supply depots
should be established wherever possible in
tenement districts and lectures or instruc-
tians given there to mothers on the care
q. milk. Committees OF the conference
S,.auld work with health departments of
city and state.
Seven.h-Legisiation should be passed
making pollution of milk receptacles mis-
Sc,uaanor. In general the sanitary code
rnv covers the ground necessary to pre-
serve cleanliness of milk. Enforcement Of