The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-05-19
JUST FULL OF 'EM
Topeka Milk Is Swarming With
Bacteria.
Prof. Starin Finds. an Amazing
Condition. SIS
DIARIES NOT CLEAN.
This Is Supposed to Be Cause
of Trouble.
DIR. Crumbine Will Recommend
Stringent Action.

made of 81 samples of milk pur-
chased on the Topeka market, man
gets a regular ham sandwich of
bacteria every time he drinks glass
of the tactical fluid.
The bacteriologist of the state
board OF health, who made the exam
nation is Prof. w. A. Starin. of the
State university, and he found that 15
out of FL samples examined contained
too large a settlement of bacteria for
safety. f,a
One sample (No. 13-that's un-
lucky contained 34.o57.000 bacteria
for every cubic centimeter. A cubic
centimeter is about 20 drops. That
is a population record which makes
the tenement house district OF New
York look like an uninhabited wilder
ness.
OF course it is supposed that most
of these bacteria are nice, harmless
ones, tame enough to come UP and
eat out of the hand. If they were
not, the people of Topeka would prob
ably all be dead long ago. In fact
milk which has 100000 bacteria or
less per cubic centimeter is considered
first class, healthful milk. But when
milk gets so many bacteria in 1t that
it has to be broken off in chunks and
sold in paper sacks, the chances are
that the purchaser Is taking home
into the bosom and digestive tract OF
his family a regular menagerte OF
wild. ferocious germs which may
break loose and eat the family up.
There are seven out OF the Il sam
pIes which contained more than 10,
00O, 900 bacteria per 7centimeter each.
/ One sample contained only 1900
bacteria, which Is practically sterile
milk. That particular kind of milk
is no longer on the Topeka market.
The man who was selling it said he
couldn't afford to produce that kind
| Of milk, because people were not will
| ing to pay enough additional to get
| it, That milk was produced In a
dairy where the floors are MADE OF
cement: where the COWS are groomed
each day, and the udders washed be-
| fore milking. After that, the mixers,
| arrayed in clean white linen suits,
MIXED the cows into specially pre-
pared buckets, so arranged that every
drop of milk, before falling into the
| bucket, had to soak through two
| layers of gauze II Anda a layer OF
absorbent cotton. After being mflked.
| the milk WAS placed in bottles and
| cooled rapidly. Milk OF that kind
| will keep two days longer than ordi-
| nary milk, it is said. But it costs
money to prepare milk for market in
that way, and people don't want to
put up the price. So the man who
was running a dairy on that plan gave
it up as bad job. :. He simply pre-
4 pared a sample for the state board
Of health to show how it could be
| done. sce-
| The ice cream situation, from a
meteorological standpoint. was even
worse than the milk. Two samples
Of ice cream were examined from To-
peka No. contained 46.769,000 bac-
terra per centimeters and No. 2 con-
tanned 33,370,000 per cubic centime-
ter. Ice cream generally does contain
| more bacteria than milk because
cream is richer in bacteria than milk,
and by the time cream is made into
| ice cream and placed on the market,
| it is generally several days old.
| Here are the results of the bacteria
counts made at the university labora-
tories of the 81 Topeka milk samples:
1