The Washington herald., 1912-01-07

EMILE BEhLANEhs
times, and I now repeat II. with en-
phasis. No medical society In the United
States, so far as I know. and have
been waiting and watching for action,
has gone on record as favoring the pas
teurization of milk. It has been said
that raw milk is the doctors best friend.
Travelled a year or two ago between Lon
don and Paris with a French physician
told him what / was doing about milk.
oh. dear he said, laughing. the doc
, tors will kill you His was the general
medical attitude. First, business. fees.
and siclxnessl Humanity had no place
in his thought as It came booming forth
extemporaneousiy.
II leave the reason why physicians re-
main officially silent on the vital ques-
tion OF pasteurization to the common
sense of the ordinary man. think they
are governed by selfishness. and Nathan
Straus, who has been supplying the poor
OF New York with pasteurized milk, Is
Of the same opinion. He told me so. say
ing the people needed physicians and de-
pended on them. but that my charge. he
was sorry to confess, was true, in his
judgment Why, some doctors 90 so
far as 20 say that 81 per cent OF the
babies fed on pasteurized milk suffer from
scurvy or ricketts,. the last of which
causes crooked limbs and other distor-
tions Of the bones There is absolutely
no truth in such ridiculous and danger
Gus statements.
How Dangerous Germs Multiply.
1T has been proved unquestionably
that fresh milk cooled to IS degrees
Fahrenheit contains As microscopic col
onies OF bacteria Some OF the germs
may be benevolent. as they are called.
and some may be Injurious or malignant.
The milk Is hauled TO the railway sta
ton through the sun. loaded into a hot
car, transported 10 a city and peddled
from house TO house during the glare
of summer. And all the while the good
germs and the bad are multiplying.
The as original colonies, within twenty
four hours. at so degrees Fahrenheit, be-
come 1.362 colonies; at So degrees they
increase to 67.170 colonies, and at 50 de-
grees to 1884, $40 colonies. The germs Of
consumption. OF typhoid fever, OF scarlet
fever. OF diphtheria, and other deadly
maladies are multiplied as fast as are
the germs which are not harmful to
health Yet the doctors, as organized
bodies, refuse to approve the destruc-
ton Of those germs Why? AS / said be-
fore, / leave the answer to the common
sense Of the average man-of the father
or the husband who pays the bills Of
the doctors and the underwriters"
But is Il convenient in the ordinary
village or city kitchen to kill the germs
In uncertain milk?'
Certainly. Pasteuization requires ap-
paratus because the milk Is heated in
stoppersd bottles and then cooled quick
" and kept cool. But scalding, that is,
bringing milk TO the boiling point so that
A. skin forms on the top, is practicable
in any house and scalding makes IL rea-
sonably safe for infants or adults. II
il is boiled, / am free TO say, II may be
indigestible in some cases. Usually. so
1 have found, certified milk. as It is de-
scribed by dealers, is more dangerous
than raw milk right out OF the wagon.
II literally swarms with the very worst
kinds OF bacteria
What have you learned about typhoid
fever?''
II am satisfied that 1t IS brought to
ones table in milk in very many in
stances Cans are washed In contami-
mated water from creeks. brooks. springs,
and wells. They are neither dried nor
sterilized afterward and thus milk Is
often impregnated with typhoid bacilli
Cream Is more dangerous than milk be-
cause, while its bulk is but one-twentieth
OF the whole, IL nevertheless contains 60
per cent Of the total bacteria"
Milking Done at 3 A. NJ.
How can one obtain safe butter.
cheese, and ice cream?"
"Under present conditions one might
as weu try to get the pot of gold that
is said to be at the end OF the rainboy.
DR.. Schroeder found active germs in
butter that was five months old. No
city man knows where his butter origi-
mated. II is the same with cheese.
some OF the cheese we eat was manu-
factured IN Europe. Ice cream, a lo%
cally prepared food commonly, could
be made OF sterilized milk and cream,
under strict regulations. but, so far all
inspection has been more or less inef-
fectual
Milking Is done by cheap labor at
s o'clock in the morning on hundreds
OF thousands Of American farms. The
mixers. routed out OF bed at that
hour. are not particularly impressed by
the sanitary obligations that attach to
their euaployment. Moreover. II may
be winter. with no fire in the cookstove,
but with plenty of ice in the water
bucket. To say the least, aolution un-i
der such circumstances Is scant and
hurried. And then the COWS have been
lying DOWN all hA8htF ehNAA a0ICAo
dragrfne on the ground, in stables and
barnyards. and are unwashed. then and
At ali other timea. except when they
stand In water during summer or are
rained ON while eating grass in the
meadow or on the hillside.
eAiiIk. closely looked into: is not a
pleasant subject Yet we all consume
II ana All OF us are endangered by It
Thousands die because Of It We boast.
however. that We are clean and civ
liked people. Cleaner tnan Is Sermany;
YES. where COW stables are filthy: but
we lose 10 per cent OF our typhoid
cases. while Germany, by scalding or
boiling It's milk. loses but ~ per cent
OF its cases, and the disease is more
nrevalent here than It is there.
@Animals will rarely eat thing that
makes them sick, 1t is the Prsstiee Of
r,ilr S,,6niv ought to be turned over
10 skilled sanitarians. not to doctors,
whose work is curative and not pre-
=, ,.,. .bv lanes B. MouuH1