Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-21


United States public health
In 81 N and marine hospital service.
lwM 1t deals with the subject OF
l-zss the milk supply of the cities
of the United States, and
makes a showing which is at once
valuable to public health and alarm
ing to the consumer of the lacteal
fluid. Every time railroad tram
meets with an accident and someone
is killed, IA storm of protest goes up
about lives neediessly sacrificed. Ev-
cry time a mine explosion or a fire
takes place one hears much about our
industrial Juggernaut. and the per-
son or persons who are responsible are
sought out and a charge of criminal
carelessneses brought against them. III
is well that 1t Is so. But there Is
far more insiduous and dangerous
enemy to public life and public health
abroad in the land than these. 1t is
bad milk. Where railroads Kill their
hundreds, bad milk takes off its thou-
sands and where mine horrors snuff
out the little candle of life for Its Few
bad milk lays low it's many.
In this book milk as a disease-carrier
is on trial. Science is the prosecuting
attorney. Never has prosecutor foi-
lowed his case more closely. Never
was there gathered together a strong
er army of circumstancial evidence, eV-
cry iota of it pointing with unerring
force to the guilt of the defendant, and
none of 1t compatible with conclusion
of innocence. The evidence is con-
elusive, the conclusion Is inevitable.
Pure clean, uncontaminated milk
never gives a person contagious or
infectious disease. Unclean, contami-
mated milk usually does. Hundreds OF
epidemics have been traced to one
milk source in each case. This applies
to typhoid fever, scarlet fever and
diphtheria.
Listen to the evidence Last october
there was an epidemic of typhoid fever
at Cresson, noted health resort at
the western end of the big tunnel
above the famous Horseshoe Curve on
the Pennsylvania. There were nine
cases In eight families. No two of the
families had the same water supply.
All of them got their milk from the
same dairy, where there were two
cases of typhoid in the family of the
dairyman. The dairy was closed and
the outbreak ceased. Exhibit No.
relates to an outbreak In Savannah,
Ga, In May, 1907. Only nineteen cases
of typhoid fever had occurred in
Savannah from January to May. Dur
ing May ninety-fiye cases were report
ed. Sixty-three came from one dairy,
while the other thirty-two were scat
tered among eighteen other milk sup
plies. The dairy involved did whole
sale and retail business and one of the
depots supplied by it was a baker
shop, over which a typhoid patient
lived. The cans sent to this depot
were returned and used again with
out being sterilized.
break of typhoid in Newark, N. j..
where the average number of cases q
year is about thirty. Within month
there were 103 c@ses reported. Investt-
CATION showed that sixty-nine of those
cases used milk from one farm, and
that preceding the outbreak a fever
subject had millSed cows at the farm
The sale of milk from this place was
stopped, and by December there were
only forty-nine cases left. In August
of the same year an explosive outbreak
of twenty-nine cases occurred at Salt
Lake City. None of these had com
mon water supply and all patronized
one dairy. There had been a case oi
typhoid on the farm supplying this
dairy. The premises were set In sani'
tary order and the outbreak came to al
end.
In April. 1908. there was an outbreak
of typhoid at Palo Alto, Cal. OF the
900 people using milk from one dairy
232 had typhoid The milk cans haC
been washed in creek infected by
sewage, and the milk was diluted with
the same watS2 Such is the record OF
milk as a carrier of typhoid. A hun
dred similar instances might be men
tioaed In the case of scarlet fever and
diphtheria. But the crimes of infected
milk are so numerous as to make il
monotonous to recite them all. Every
case is as conclusive as the ones men
toned.
When it is remembered that there
are 81 000,0 900 milch cows in the United
States, and that each of these mus
yield about forty-siX gallons of milk 6
year, over and above what is used BY
the farmer and that which is made
into butter and cheese, it. will readily
appear how important the question o.
a milk supply is. 1t amounts to JUS
about a billion gallons year, and that
means that every urban and suburban
inhabitant of TIE United States con
sumes between twenty-five and thirty
gallons of milk year. The amount
used by the non-farming population
of the country in a years time is al
great as the quantity of water con
sumed in a city like Washington II
twelve days. In 1905 it was estimated
that the annual consumption of mill
in Philadelphia amounted to twenty
three gallons per capita. In Londor
the annual consumption was placed a.
lis gallons. showing that nowhere elst
is so much milk consumed as IL
America.
Mill holds a peculiar position among
foodstuffs in that it is an excellent me
dunn for the growth of many micro
organisms. In the hygienic laborator,