The Washington herald., 1912-03-16

would occupy too much uine, Dut L
think | have made clear my point
that Commissioner Lederle's 'edict
means the compulsory pasteuriza-
ton of practically the entire milk
supply of the metropolis.
In commercial practice this Sc
lected" milk will be only certified
or guaranteed milk under another
name.
These brands q milk are un-
doubtedly fine for infant feeding.
Every mother in New York
should use them-if she has the
purchasing price.
1t is one thing to advise mother
what she ought to feed her baby
with, but it is quite another thing
to supply her with the funds to
purchase the food indicated.
Let us turn tor a moment from
the health commissioner to the
humble homes of the poor of New
York city.
Let us see, for example, how the
mothers of the great congested sec
tions of Manhattan borough handle
the milk problem with the unerring
prudence and instinct of mother
hood.
For several months, investigators
of the sanitary bureau of the Milk
Dealers Association of Greater
New York have made a canvass of
these congeSted sections of Man.
haitian, to obtain statistics covering
infantile illness or mortality due to
milk during the present year.
incidentally, they have been in
structed to thoroughly examine the
condition of the milk supply, and
the methods employed in handling
and storing the product in shops
and the home. Let us first show
how the milk is handled by the con-
sumner.
In about % per cent of the homes
of the poor of New York City raw
milk is purchased. 1t is generally
known as grocery milk" and is
purchased in the numerous little
grocery, delicatessen and milk
stores which dot the streets of the
rDuUpSted districts
In some cases it is purchased by
the pint or quart This is where the
family is sufficiently wealthy to pur-
chase a small piece of ice with
which to keep it cool.
In the homes where ice is lux
ury, the raw milk is purchased in
very small quantitieS-two cents
worth, for exanrple-at such inter
walls as it is needed for immediate
consumption. In the home where a
poor mother has a large family OF
small children, the supplying of the
little ones with their daily milk diet
is a daily financial problem.
The advance of one cent in the
retail price of a quart of milk in
such localities is a disaster.
Raw loose milk is the cheapest of
the various kinds sold, and hence
the great demand for it.
Cheap price milk is an impera-
tive necessity for the poor OF New
York City.
Raise the price of this product to
a height beyond their purchasing
power and YOU perform an act in
consistent with any recognized law
.of God or man.
Now, when this raw loose milk
is brought into the homes, what is
the first thing done to it:
Our Investigators found that for
wears the custom has been prac-
tically universal for the poor FAM
lilies of Manhattan to heat their
milk before using it for any pur-
pose. 1t is a habit apparently
copied as a sanitary measure from
the Hebrew population.
So universal is this milk heating
process that our investigators found
quite a number of cases in which
even pasteurizcd bottle milk was
also subjected to this same home
heating process.
What my investigators have
found is fully corroborated by DIR.
Friedman, who tells us that inves-
legations carried on by inspectors
of the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research, when seeking
statistics concerning the effect OF
different foods on the health of
babies in the tenementS, were
scarcely able to find infants that
were fed on raw milk.
This corroboration> also SuS-
tained BY DR.. Parke in his report
on infant feeding in the 1902 report
of the health department: AN un-
expected difficulty was encountered
in beginning the investigation, in
the scarcity of bottle-fed in.
fants One of the physicians
reported that in a densely popu-
lated neighborhood where every
ctreafs NAG Sy,ar,,,ino with children