East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-10-04
SAVE THE BABIES,
IS NATION S CRY
CRUSADE AGAINST BAD
MILK is NATION WIDE
General Movement Toward the Pre-
yentlOn of Infant Mortality--Germs
in MIX are Chief Cause-50 per
cent Of all Deaths of Babies Due TO
That Cause

Washington, oct. 2.-If the babies
of this country don't get their rights
| il won't be because they lack friends
among the grOwn-ups. One important
university is to add a department Of
child study to its courses, and in con-
nection with it everything pertaining
| to the life of a child will be collected
and cOllated. Another instance Is af-
forded by the American Academy of
Medicine, which has arranged for a
conference of physicians, sociologists
and educators, to be held at New Ha-
ven, Conn, November 11-17, on the
Prevention of Infant Mortality. At
that meeting every aspect of the prob
lem, from the medical phianthropic,
educational and institutional points OF
view will be gone into by specialists
who are devoting their lives to the
study of the subject.
According to experts, the most i'm
portant problem in connection with
infant mortality is feeding Time was
when milk was milk, and that was all
there was to 1t. But that was before
some indiscreet scientist put drop
of the lacteal fluid under his micrl-
scope and then went ahead and let
the rest of the world know the secret
! of what he found there. After that
even the low brows knew that things
rarely are what they seem. They
learned that skim milk not only mas
querades as cream, but that nice, in
lnocent-looking white milk might be
whole storage warehouse full of
germs.
Nowadays every city that lays any
claim to being civilized has a milk
commission, or a board Of health that
attempts at least to regulate the dali
ries of the community.
One scientist recently took a CEN
sus of the germs in one cubic cent?
meter-less than a thimblefull-of
milk. He found that there were few
! er "bugs" when the mercury was low,
and that great hordes were present
at higher temperature. In one cubic
centimeter of fresh milk he counted
500 bacteria. Twenty four hours later
when he examined the same milk,
which had, in the meantime, been
kept at a temperature of so degrees,
he found 10000 bacteria. Another
cubic centimeter of milk was kept for
twenty-four hours at the temperature
of the room. and yielded 100000
bacteria. Figure out hof many Thin
| blefuls there are in a quart of milk
and an idea may be gained as to the
number of germs the ultimate con-
sumer gets.
Several cities fix a standard of the
number of bacteria permissible in
milk; New York, the milk commits
sioners who supervise the milk intend
ed for babies have placed the limit
az 10000.
Since fifty per cent of all the deaths
of babies under one year of age are
due to gastro-enteric diseases, mostly
attributable to impure milk, the ques-
tion of standard of purity of the
food is considered most desirable
Much has been accomplished by the
establishment of municipal milk de-
pots in several cities. In Rochester,
n. Y, for instance a reduction of 80
per cent in infant deaths was noted
after supervision of milk. This was
achieved at an expenditure which DR..
George w. Goler of that city. esti-
mates at only $500 month for the
milk depots and medical supervision.