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2 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.”