Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-14
The Clean Milk Crusade.
u.-Conditions That Demand
Remedy.
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

w men the ledu1ng Illllh duIHOiiSy Va NuI.
cago declared that the people Of that city
annually receive twenty-five tons OF dirt
in their milk he astounded many of his
fellow-citizens, but when one comes to
calculate how much this is to the quart
and compare it with the amount Of dirt
that will be found by straining the aver
age quart of market milk through piece
of absorbent cotton he will find that the
statement was very conservative. The
cotton strainer is a test of milk az SIM
pie as could be. and yet not one house
test to its milk supply.
1t Is true. however that enough OF them
have discovered dirt In their milk to lead
enterprising dairymen try to overcome
the difficulty. And they have been pro-
vided with a machine that will take out
this dirt. II is announced that this ma
chine takes out all hairs. particles OF dirt,
pus and the like. leaving the milk clean
and wholesome. IT does leave ii clean so
far as the eye can detect But in point
of fact. the sanitarians say, it is dirtier
than before. 1t has broken up every lit
tie colony of germs and has scattered
them all through the milk, each, In turn
to form new colony. Such machines are
widely sold and used, and yet milk au-
tIOftlAcS ASSERT tudl tHcy uldhc tu0 ldSt
state of the milk worse than the first.
X
People who patronize first-class hotels
and restaurants frequently get as
unwholesome
Unwholesome Milk grade Of
in First-class Hotels. sold IN the
&onar,ac% 5;.+-ya. xrlax +ho Na1xy vorlr
milk committee looked into this phase of
the matter it found that in some places
milk sold at % cents a glass was as
full of bacteria as the milk sold in the
Yiddish shops on the East Side. In some
of the big hotels 1t was found that
practice was INDUCED in of serving
customers milk order in q bottle. lead
ing him to think that the milk was bot
tied at the source and kept free from all
contamination, whereas the fact was
that the milk was very inferior In grade
and poured into the bottle by care
less scullion in the kitchen. When these
conditions We're brought to the attention
of the proprietors they usually FASTENED
to remedy them.
In many communities there Is a prac-
tice among milk wagon drivers to change
versa, as they drive along, in order to
meet the demands Of their days trade.
One investigator tells of a driver whom
he saw pouring pints into unwashed
quart bottles and then licking of the
mouth of the bottle to hide the evidences
of the change. The caps he put into the
quart bottles were drawn from his vest
pocket
How dirty milk sometimes may become
was discovered by DR.. NJ. ]. Rosenau, one
of the members of the milk commission.
In 1907 he found that the general mar
ket milk in Washington contained up
ward of 100000 germs to the cubic
centimeter. This is a larger number of
germs than is to be found in the sewage
of the average large city. In the sew
age of Boston for period of seven years
the average number was less than 1000.
900. and in London the number ranged
from 2,000,0nO to 100000 However,
not all bacteria found in milk are bad.
Some of them are good. as, for instance.
the tactic acid germ. But, on the whole,
milk with large number Of germs in it
must be regarded as guilty until it proves
itself innocent.