New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-08-28
SEES BUHERM|LK CRAZE
BacterioIogist Points to Danger
in Present Day Enthusiasm.
COMMENDS THE BUTTER BUG
Bulgarian Fermentation Process
Best, She Says-Germ Nest
in Kitchen Laboratory.


terrnilk crazy said DR.. Manning, While
she admitted the benefit of fernented milk
Americans are prone TO take up rev
things eml;lo+ them TO enthusiastic ex-
travagance and then abandon them sue
denly. This national characteristic, which
has been carefully studied, has been taken
advantage OF by shrewd traders she con-
tinued.
THE harassed kidney OF the twentleth
century, 1oggled from it's moorings oy the
vibrations Of rapid transit, its delicate eA-
cretory cells insulted by daily doses OF de-
bris from the most exciting food ana
crowded in its work Of elimination oy a
sluggish digestion and torpid HVer IS
cIeansed, soothed and fed by the milo acld-
ity. bland action and highly nutritious
value of fer1nented milk But-He are put
termilk crazy,
The authentic announcement that Ter
nented milk retarded the hardening OF the
arteries and postponed senilty was foi-
lowed by sudden manufacture under Varl-
Gus names In large quantities Most OF TINS
product is good though the prices charged
are so exorbitant and so beyond Ordinary
means that what promised to be blessing
has been turned into a menace. Ten cents
for little more than two gills IS the price
of one bottled preparation. and Is cents TO-
the same quantity Of another which gears
q different label, but in all probability IS
of no greater efficiency. AS result OF
these prices, which yield profit OF from
100 to 300 per cent, hundreds of famiileS III
every city in the country have undertaken
to prepare their own fermented milk by
using the inactive but living germ, SOLD IN
tablet form by druggists generally
Danger in Kitchen Laboratory.
1t is in the household manufacture Of
fermented nliIks that DR.. Manning sees the
greatest dangers. Her work as an tnVesu-
ga tor shortly after her graduation from the
Northwestern University, Evanston ana
Chicago, followed by her writings IN Inc
Journal of the American Medical Assoc1s-
ton on The Transmission Of Pathogenic
Germs by the Common House Fly, mas
stamped her as an authority on the subject
Of the transmission OF germs. With regard
to the buttern1ilk ablet she said
1T contains what is technically known as
a pure culture of the germ. and that
means the germ alone, and no other, Is
present IN the tablet. The preliminary
preparation for the fermenting of fresh
milk in the laboratory would be TO have q
s,irgically clean mortar and pestle. IN
which the tablet was reduced to powder
There would be no open windows through
which flies or dust could enter. The tenn
perature would he equa0le and the hands OF
the person who handled the grinding stone
would have been previously sterilized with
an aseptic solution. After the powdered
tablet vas placed in the milk. contained IN
shallow vat previously sterihzed, the con-
-.;.l- H..
cover No dust and 10 atmospheric germs
could exist within tie laboratory walls.
The process Of fermentation would con
tinue for tHenty-four hours, and the
sJltant product placed in the proper TEN
perature and then bottled in steriIized
jar for final consumption. That is the lab
oratory way.
The kitchen Laboratory is vastly diff
ferent thing according to Dr. Manning,
who added
Nov. when We turn kitchen into 4
laboratory. the conditions are diametricsl-
ly opposite; and this is particularly true
Of the lower East Side in New York City,
where fermented milk is made by hundreds
of gallons Fancy a tenement with no win
dow screens where flies swarm in ard out
day and night. where damp clothing is
dried on lines strung from wall to wall.
where putrefying garbage is kept in a tin
pail or porous wooden bucket. where the
weekly or semi-weekly wash is carried
regardless of the release of bacterial life
from the clothing. where clouds Of dust
laden with the germs of tuberculosis and
il may be. spinal paralysis are carried in
through the open windows; where the ket-
ties and bottles and pans in which the milk
is placed for fermentation are washed in
water that has not been distilled or steril-
lied where the dishrag is greasy and
where the very milk itself has been dipped
out of an unclean tin can that according
to the milk inspectors reports. showed the
presence of ten million bacteria within
certain measurement as against the nor
NAL quantity which should be five hun
dred thousand-and then you may form
some faint idea OF the dangers Of prepar-
ing fermented milk in the kitchen of the
tenement"
Speaking of the tenefcial action OF but
tern1ilk on the walls of arteries, Dr.
Manning said that it must be remembered
that the arteries will not be kept young
and the system at its highest vigor by an
impure and germ laden product any more
than health could be ssutained by eating
flesh foods impregnated with ptomaines
The Bulgarian Butter Bug.
One of the most interesting circum-
stances connected with the fermenting OF
milk" said DR. Manning. lis the bringing
into this country by natives of Bulgaria
of the actual butter bug-that is about the
hest and most comprehensive term TO de-
scribe it. It's growth is the same in prin-
cipIe as the yeast plant, which is sold in the
resting stage in the form of compressed
Yeast and il looks not unlike boiled tapioca
This living moving mass has been pre-
served and sent down from generation 10
generation for many hundred years Tie
power of reproduction is marvellous. One
inch of this culture placed in the bottom of
q quart milk Jar and covered with milk to
the extent of half pint will within TWEEN
ty-four hours form a fluid that can be
poured off and used agent itself for
the production OF more fermented milk
The original mass OF baCilli is washed off
then for preservation and further reproduc-
ton placed in jar and covered with three
or four inches of new milk This is the
Bulgarian method which has been carried
on so far In the past that there is no
record Of its origin: but 1t must be reInem-
exercise the greatest care in this process of
The culture is used only in
a darkened stone room TO which no dust
Is admitted and which corresponds in its /
general principles TO a modern laboratory