The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-09-11
DR.. BYRD DISCUSSES THE
CITY'S MILK ORDINANCE
Assistant State Health Off
Ger Makes Valuable
Suggestions.
ORDINANCE is DEFECTIVE INSO-
FAR AS DISCOVERING TUBER-
cULosIs IN cows is CONCERN
ED-THE JACKSONVILLE ORDI-
NANCE is DIFFERENT.

The following letter from DR.. Hiram
Byrd. assistant state health officer, IS
self-explanatory:
Jacksonville. Fla, Sept. s, 1908
Editor The Pensacola Journal, Pensa-
cola. Florida.
Dear Sir: l note that Pensacola
now has a milk ordinance in force.
Her intentions are evidently good.
Among other things the ordinance de
clares that no person shall sell or
offer for sale milk which is procured
from COWS having tuberculosis
This clause is evidently meant to
protect the public against the use OF
milk from tuberculOuS cows But how
it is going 10 work in actual practice2
VIII it give the desired prO1ecuiOn2
Let us see.
The ordinance seems to carry the
idea that the daiTyman may sell milk
till he or someone else finds that one
or more of his COWS have tuberculosis.
And il seems to assume that the san
itary inspector" by simple inSpec-
ton. is going TO find out all the COWS
that have tuberculosis And the or
dinance provides that one of the san
itary inspectors shall be made inspect
or of milk.
With this before US let us take our
bearings A skilled veterinarian, who
has had the best of training and
broad experience with diseases of do
mestic animals, can, by closest exam
ination. determine ABOUT three per
cent of the cows that are tubeTcuIar.
The other ninety-Seven per cent VIII
not show symptoms enough of the
disease for him to suspect they have
tuberculosis. From the closest exam
inatiOn without the application of the
tubeTcuIin test, he would fail to de
tect ninety-seven out of a hundred
tubercular COWS He would find
three. A man without knowledge and
special training would probably not
do so well, for it is well known now
that COWS may be dangerously tUber-
Cular and show no symptoms of the
disease. They may even be too fat
for good mixers, and yet, so far as
looks 90. be like Caesars wife. above
suspicion" so that the only way tOI
know that a COW or herd is free from
tuberculosis is to have the animals
tested
The ordinance doesn't seem to pro-
vide for any test of the animal
only a test of the milk. And the test
that It provides for the milk seems
to be a chemical test only Now, a
chemical test is good as far as II
goes. 1t determines the amount of
butter fats. sugar, pTOteid, etc, that
IS to say it tells whether the pur-
chaser is getting his moneys WORTH
but it does not tell anything about
the disease or health of the animals
Nor does it tell anything about the
cleanliness of the milk either with ref
erence to handling or to bacterial con
tamination. And least of all is the
information of tuberculosis A bacte-
rial examination of milk, on the other
hand indicates the cleanliness with
which the milk is handled but even
that is a very doubtful and uncertain
method of determining the presence
of tuberculosis in the COW, and as
for determining its absence by bac- |
teTial examination, that is simply inn |
possible. Jensen, one of the fore
most authorities in Europe, says: |
The deteCtion0O tubeTcle bacih in |
milk by miScTOsCOpiCal examination Is |
difficult, a direct examination VIII |
very seldom give results >,
Since the number OF tubercle bacil4l !
in mixed milk Is, at most, but small, |
only positive result of the examina- !
ton can be final, and even then the |
result is doubtful. since as mentioned |
before. 'pseudOtUbercle bacilli' may ap- /
pear III MIX "ultH are AahN Tic IuDel-
Gle baciili in respect 10 straining and
are similar also in mOrphOlogy" No, |
no. We don't go to the milk to find |
whether the COW has tuberculosis We
must go 10 the COW herself. And
then We must not stop with a simple
inspection. II makes no difference
how competent an inspector might be !
nor how close an inspection he makes, |
for as seen from the above. be Will |
the cases of tuberculosis. He mas
got to do more than -inspect-he has
got to apply the tuberculin test II /
he does that. his work viii De worth /
something. If not. so far as tubercU- |
losis is concerned. his inspection Will |
De = farce
Now. Jacksonville has recently
passed a milk ordinance which aims |
at the same thing protection of the |
public against the use of milk from |
tubeTcUlous COWS But II places the |
burden Of proof upon the dairyman. /
Before he is allowed 10 sell milk he
must prove BY the tUberculin test. .
that his cows are free from turbercu- f,
IOsis- The essential difference Is !
that the Jacksonville ordinance as 7
sumes that al COWS are tubercuIar /.
until they are proven TO be free from /
tuberculosis, and provides that the !
tubeTculin test shall be the proof I
while the Pensacola ordinance as /
sUmes that all COWS are free from tn /
bercuIosis until proven to be tuber-
culOus. and provides no way of prov
ing Il
This letter is written for the Dur
pose Of pointing out the defect in the
ordinance. Il IS assumed that the
council wants a tubercuIosis-free milk. /
else that clause would not be there /
Acting upon that assumption II Is
both the duty and pleasure OF the /
state board OF health TO IN iicate the
in, rr-EScE, IL