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MILK.— A GREAT NUTRITIVE AGENT.
TENEFICENT NATURE has never pro
vided a more perfect form of nourish
ment for man than that afforded by the
milk of healthy cows. In its nutritive
and life-giving qualities it has, perhaps,
no equal in all the wide field of natural
lourishment used by man for the main
enance of life and the preservation of
strength and vigor. There is no record
B
oi aixj pie-historic race of men without a corre
sponding record of some milk-producing animal,
usually the domestic cow as we know it. Al
ways we read of the “flocks and herds” of early
days, and in biological research there is always
to be found remains of some mammal the milk of
which might have been available for man’s use.
It has remained, however, for our modern civili
zation, with its vaunted progress and invention for
man’s betterment, to defile and pervert one of the
greatest gifts provided by Nature for man’s im
provement. In no one way is the evil of the com
mercialism of our age more strongly evidenced than
by the numerous methods in common daily use for
the adulteration of milk. It is a fluid which, from
its very nature, lends itself most easily to hurtful
changes without the possibility of detection by the
sense of taste, smell or sight; for strange to say
adulterated milk is often palatable enough, and in
many instances is easily consumed by the average
person.
Milk as a Life Preservative.
As a food product milk is of most peculiar value
for infants and invalids, and its failure to nourish
the former class, with a corresponding increase in
the infantile death rate, has been one of the prin
cipal reasons directing the attention of the scien
tific world to milk adulteration and its consequent
train of evils.
In the principal cities of the world the extent of
milk adulteration has grown with astounding rap
idity within recent years, until most stringent gov
ernment regulations have been enacted to protect
this fluid and hence save the alarming decrease in
population which was noticeable enough to cause
grave and serious alarm.
Government Inspection of Milk.
In Paris alone it is said that the passage of these
regulations regarding milk, and requiring a gov
ernment inspection of all milk sold for use of in
fants, has had the effect of decreasing the death
rate among children exactly fifty per cent within a
given twelve months. Similar regulations in our
own country have had similar results, until at last
it would seem that the public was awakening to a
sense of the urgent need of PURE MILK, and
means toward the accomplishing of that end are
being set on foot. In New York City philanthro
pists have directed attention to this need, and with
the co-operation of chemists, bacteriologists and
health officers, the movement for Pure Milk has
gradually grown, until today there are established
in many of the large cities of the north and east
perfectly equipped laboratories for the sale of
“clinical” milk, as it is called by physicians who
order it for patients and infants under their care.
When it is considered that to procure absolutely
and chemically pure milk it is necessary to establish
not only a dispensing and bottling depot, but a
model home for the cows producing the milk, there
may, perhaps, be some idea formed of the extent
of the work required in providing the public with
this most necessary fluid.
The Milk Commission.
Some years ago there was established in New
York City a milk commission, consisting of prom
inent medical men, health officers, bacteriologists
and veterinarians, whose duty it was to pass on
all milk used within the city and to determine its
life-giving properties. This commission was al
most daunted by the conditions they discovered.
Chief among the adulterants used was the deadly
formaldehyde which, while not altering the ap
pearance or taste of milk, and on the contrary,
The Urgent Need For Its Chemical and Clinical Purity.
preserving these properties intact, at the same time
destroyed every particle of nutriment in the fluid
itself, making its use of no more clinical value
than so much chalk and water. Formaldehyde en
abled dealers to use milk that was as much as a
week old, and it absolutely defied apy but a chem
ical test to determine its presence in the fluid.
This milk commission soon determined that its
first work was to find some source from which ab
solutely pure milk could be obtained, and when
this was done to enter into a fixed agreement with
such a company whereby the milk sold by them
should be subject to a most rigid examination by
four members of the commission consisting of a
physician, a bacteriologist, a chemist and a veteri
narian.
Establishment of a Milk “Laboratory.”
This plan resulted in the establishment of a milk
laboratory where all the requirements surrounding
the use of pure milk should be rigidly adhered to.
It was first necessary to select a suitable location
for the farms where the cow’s could be given every
possible sanitary requirement, such as a fine water
supply, good pasturage and carefully arranged
buildings which could be easily kept in a condition
of perfect cleanliness. It was found that such
buildings add greatly to the physical condition of
cows, and it is on this condition that the nutritive
value of milk depends.
Cows known as “grade cows,” that is to say those
representing mixtures of various breeds, have been
found most desirable for producing the best milk,
and these cows are constantly under examination
as to their physical condition, while as much care
is given to their careful grooming as is bestowed
on a splendid race horse, on whose perfect phy
sical condition many thousands of dollars depend.
Precautions With Milk.
Next to finding the proper cows, there is to be
considered the manifold precautions necessary
while milking, and for the care of the milk after
it is produced. In a sanitary laboratory the milk
ing attendants are as carefully prepared for their
tasks as are the assistants in a modern surgical
operation. Hands are carefully sterilized, while
each attendant is required to wear sterilized gar
ments, and to use only sterilized cans, on which cov
ers are placed as soon as full. These separate cans
are poured into a great central sterilized vessel
which is kept covered and as soon as full is rapidly
taken to the exquisite modern dairy which rivals
the most perfectly equipped laboratory in the white
ness of its walls, tables and bottling apparatus.
The fresh milk is subjected to as little handling
as possible, but is placed in the sterilized bottles,
those bottles being washed by a centrifugal machine
before use. The milk is poured through a sterilized
gauze and cotton strainer from the small room into
which it is taken immediately after milking, and
in order to reduce it to the proper bottling tem
perature it flows over a cooler into a tank where it
is immediately drawn into the bottjle-flller, the
temperature then being below 45 degrees Fahren
heit.
Bovine Tuberculosis.
As is well known, the dread disease of tubercu
losis is more prevalent among cows than among
any other animals, and the cows used in a modern
laboratory are guarded most carefully against this
ill. Many well known scientific authorities main
tain that milk from tuberculous cows will infect
young children with the disease, and while this
theory is not absolutely irrefutable, yet it is well
enough sustained to warrant every precaution to
prevent the mere possibility of it.
To preserve a herd of cows absolutely free from
the tuberculosis taint is a most expensive item,
for many apparently healthy cows are necessarily
discarded after having been subjected to the “tu
beuculin test,” which determines the presence of
the tuberculosis germ in otherwise perfect milk,
Otoe tuberculous cow will infect a whole herd,
The Golden Age for December 6, 1906.
hence new cows, when received into a sanitary
herd, are quarantined for the space of one month
until they can be proven to be entirely free from
disease of any sort.
While this discussion of the vital necessity of
a sanitary milk supply touches only on the most
salient points to be considered in the establish
ing of such a depot for the safety of the people,
a picture could be drawn of the conditions now
existing in ordinary dairies and milk depots which
would seem incredible in its horror and its danger.
But this phase of the subject we shall not cover;
it is with future betterment and not with past or
present ills that we would deal. We have said that
milk laboratories where, pure milk can be furnish
ed to the public, and which shall be under expert
supervision at all times, is a necessity to any com
munity which desires the highest physical devel
opment for its people. We believe it is possible
to accomplish this, and we are glad to state that
already measures are being arranged to bring to
the South and to Georgia a branch of a milk labo
ratory where every precaution described in this
article is taken, and where the results from the
milk furnished are almost marvelous in cases
where the vital nourishment of invalids and in
fants is demanded.
Such a laboratory, already in existence, as has
been said, in the chief cities of the country, must
be supported by the municipal government as well
as by the people at large, and the first step toward
such support is the adequate education of the
press, the people and the civic authorities. The
South has never been backward in advocating all
reforms which result in the good of the people,
and we believe that, when there is established in
Georgia such a laboratory as we have described
here, that the most ready co-operation and support
will be extended to it from every source.
What He Would Rather Be.
By MARGARET A. RICHARD
I held him close to my breast the while
Wee Bennie said, with a winsome smile,
His hand on my cheek, “Just guess, if you can,
What I’d rather be if I were a man?”
“A shepherd?” I asked, “who guards his sheep,
And carries his lambs up the highway steep
With tenderest care?” But he shook his head.
“You never can, never can guess,” he said.
“Ah, now,” I cried, “I believe I know!
You’d be a farmer, and plough and sow,
And reap rich grain?” “No, no,” said he,
“You never can guess what I’d rather be.”
“Perhaps, then, dear, you would like to preach;
Perhaps from the pulpit you would teach
Your people the highest to be and do—”
But Bennie replied: “Not true, not true!”
“Well, maybe you’d be a doctor,” I said
“And make sick people, who lie in bed,
So well and strong they can go about”—
But he cried: “No, no!” and laughed right out.
“Perhaps you would be an engineer,
And handle your engine with so much care,
And such true skill, none would fear to go
With you round the world.” But he said not so.
“Dear me,” I mused, “let me try once more!
Aou would be a merchant, and keep a store
Where children could buy nice candy and toys,
And all that is dear to the girls and boys.”
*
He clapped his hands and cried: “I declare,
I will have to tell, for you came so near!
You see, I’d rather be Santa Claus,
’Cause he is the goodest man ever was.”