Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-23
HEALTH OF THE PUBLIC
Menace of Impure Milk Set
Forth in a Bulletin.
SECRETARY WILSON'S VIEW
Report Of Commission Appointed by
District Authorities
rs REGARDED AS IMPORTANT
Some of the Recommendations
to Criticism-Commodit as
Cause of Disease.
SECRETARY WILSON'S VIEW
rs REGARDED AS IMPORTANT

The health of every large city in the
United States is menaced by impure milk,
in the opinion of Secretary Wilson of the
Department of Agriculture, who is having
mailed thousands of copies of the report
of the special commission of milk and
health experts appointed by the District
Commissioners several months ago, embrac-
ing much Information and suggestions re-
garded as important.
The commission was appointed by the
Commissioners when the situation In Wash
ington was becoming grave and remedy
was deemed imperative. Although the re-
port is not final and summarized, Secretary
Wilson feels that the suggestions should
be given to the country at large. He de-
clares that the local condition may be bad
and even dangerous, but that it is no
worse than that of the general run of
cities.
mission did not meet with the approval Of
local milk dealers Certain dealers referred
to members of the commission as alarm
lists and theorists" and issued state
ments to the effect that all that would be
accomplished by the commission would be
increased price of milk to the consumer,
and possibly milk famine.
Reply to Criticism.
In speaking of such critisicm Secretary
Wilson says in the statement he is having
sent out:
1T is remarkable fact that every at
tempt to improve the purity of this inval-
unable article of food should be promptly
opposed by the milk industry, which con-
stituteS strong spoke in the commercial
wheel, and evidently considers it meddle-
some interference with the trade. The
ION, ono pod in inlI iSfr In
not know, and cannot know, that such
hydra-headed diseases as cholera nfantum,
scarlet fever and diphtheria have been dis
seminated in the milk supply, that typhoid
fever epidemics have been thus caused and
that milk may be the vehicle of the germs
Of tuberculosis and other infectious dis
eases and morbific agents.
Pure, natural milk can only be secured
at diaries with sanitary buildings. a pure
water supply, healthy, well-fed and we'll
cared-for cows, well-equipped and we'll
kept milk room. provisions for thorough
cleanliness, intelligent and conscientious
people in charge and clean methods
throughout. There are a number of per-
sons, thanks to the training received at the
dairy schools. who make an honest effort
to place on the market milk obtained under
such conditions, but by far the majority
of milk producers are Indifferent to hy-
gienic requirements, and would prefer the
good old days when there was no control
even to prevent the shameful authorizations
water the removal of some of it's cream
or the addition of SKINNED milk-practices
which, alas, still exist.
Examination of Samples.
The following section of the report of the
commission has been included by Secre tary
Wilson in his bulletin:
DIR. H. w. Wiley, chief of the bureau
of chemstryA United States Department of
Agriculture, reports that during the last
few months his bureau examined 327 sam
pies of milk bought in Washington, of
which Sc, or little over II per cent, had
been SKINNED or watered; and of So sam
pies of cream, IS, or 1895 per cent, were
below the standard required by law.
THE records of the health department of
the District Of Columbia show that during
the past five years 2S,s59 samples of milk
were examined, and that of these 6SOl, or
23.5 per cent were below the fixed standard,
and in 1905 instances prosecutions for the
sale of adulterated milk were presented in
the courts.
"These robberies. largely made up of the
pennies of the poor and sickly women and
half-Starved children, amount In money
value to considerably more each year than
the entire cost of the health department.
Matters of this kind should not be left,
therefore, to the Individual dealers, but the
principles which ought TO be carried out
should be embodied in effective laws and
accepted and enforced in practical sense
Interest of Public Health.
Every recommendation so far submitted
nv the commission is said to be not only
in the interest of the public health, but also
of benefit to the dairy farmer, and If the
production of a clean, wholesome milk in
wolves increased COST the commission is on
record to the effect that the additional ex-
pense should be borne by the consumer.
The commission has taken pains to pro-
duce evidence to the effect that milk Is a
cause Nof disease. On that point Secretary
Wilson says:
Il. 1t has been shown by the most pains
taking Investigations extending over a
long period of years that certain diseases
in the animal are communicable through
the medium of the milk, this being espe-
cially true of tuberculosis, foot-and-mouth
disease, anthrax and cowpoX; and that dis
eases like garget, gastro-enteritis and septic
fevers in the cow will render the milk NOR
bific to man.
80 1t has been shown that animals which
have fed on poisonous forage plants or
have been treated with strong Inducements
are disqualified from producing pure or
sound milk.
there have been published in the different
medical journals the histories of 1875 cpl
denies of typhoid fever, 80 of scarlet fever
and 36 of diphtheria, all traceable to the
milk supply.
Exhaustive Investigation.
I'm the recent exhaustive investigation
conducted by the highest health authority
in this country, viz, the United States
bureau of public health and marine hos
pital service, the commission definitely
traced So of the S66 cases of typhoid fever
(about 10 per cent? in the District of
Columbia to the of infected milk
~ 1t has been shown in former report
that in the District of Columbia about one
fourth, and in the country at large about
one-sixth. of all the children born perish
before the completion of the first year;
that nearly one-haf of the deaths in chill
dren under one year of age are caused by
gastro-enteric diseases chiefly infantile
diarrhea, and that of the 4,047 infantile
deaths which have been investigated at
home and abroad with reference to feeding
$3.50 per cent had been artifcally fed all
of which points with more than mere sus-
picion to the fact that the morbifc agent is
introduced into the body with the food
COWS milk).'
In referring to the milk conditions In