The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1922-03-24
HEALTH BULLETIN /;
CITY OF ELY I
by OWEN w. PARKER. Md,
Health Commissioner

The question of clean and safe
milk is a very important one al
ways to the public. The following
article appeared in the Nations
Health Magazine. / will present il
in three sections, the following is
the first section.
Milk as Factor in the Nations
Health.
(By J. G. Townsend, Surgeon, Unit
ed States Public Health Serv-
ice, Washington, D. CD
ITO raise the level of national
health is one of the surest ways
of raising the level of national
happiness" w. E. Fl. Lecky.
To raise the level of national
health, prevent preventable diseas-
es and thereby insure longer life
to the thousands who needlessly
die, is the ambition and hope of
every sanitarian, local, state, and
national.
AS milk is perhaps responsible
for more sickness and deaths than
all other foods combined and is in
more nearly universal use, from the
cradle to the grave, than any other
food, it is a factor all absorbing
and ever alive in the health con-
servation of our body polite. The
cardinal points which inaugurate
and perpetuate the milk question"
are "a milk is necessary, (2) milk
can be dangerous, 81 milk spoils
rapidly, and "a milk is consumed
in the raw state.
| wish in this article to review
he CT
ling milk from the cow to the ulti-
mate consumer, and, in this chain
of sanitary control, to emphasize
that each link has a significance,
which if not appreciated, weakens
the whole procedure in proportion.
With the substitution of cows
milk for mothers milk in infant
feeding and its general use as a
part of the modern dietry of all
ages in health and disease, the an
nual consumption of milk in this
country, on the average, reaches
the enormous figure of ten billion
gallons, one fourth of this being
consumed as milk, the remainder
as butter and cheese. Indeed, the
cow may be called the 'Sfoster
mother" of mankind. Naturally,
her care and cleanliness is a fit
starting-point in the milk cycle.
Clean Cows First Essential.
The mechanical washing of the
bellies, tanks, and udders of cows,
before each milking, to prevent
visible dirt from gaining entrance
into the milk is procedure of
such obvious necessity as to need
no discussion, yet the lack of a
proper appreciation of the danger
from its neglect or the loA of
time it entails to the mixer, re-
suits in such practice being all too
uncommon at the average rural
dairy farm.
The Department of Agriculture
reports an experiment with open,
sterilized milk pals to which sam
pies of fresh milk from dirty cows
were added. This milk had an av-
erage bacterial count of 55,208 per
c. c., while the samples of fresh
milk from clean cows, with udders
and teats washed, had an average
of but 4,947 per c. c.,
When we speak of bacterially
clean cows, we instinctively think
of bovine tuberculosis. Most Of
the tuberculosis of children is in
the bones, joints, and intestinal
tract, leading to the belief that
milk may be one of the chief caus-
alive agents. The theory is also
before US that generalized tubercu.
losis in adults may be the result OF
the activation of an early infection
IN childhood, acquired through the
milk from tuberculous cows.
The only way to detect early
tuberculosis in cattle is through