Newspaper Page Text
6
American Sunday Monthly Magazine Section
. \ E day .i young physician
tl j n g through a crowded Italian
g) settlement observed a pile of nni>-
sels on a large fish-stand. Half
idly he thought it was late in the
season for mussels and wondered
|!F° if any illness from eating them
, 11 1 ' *
1 would come under his notice.
Within forty-eight hours three cases of ptomaine
poisoning were brought to the hospital at which he
practiced. All of them were traced to mussels
bought from push-cart peddlers who had obtained
them from the dealer whose display had been re
marked by the doctor. This is a striking illustra
tion of the harm done by bacteria in food.
It is within the power of a careful housekeeper to
protect her family from such danger. We are
warned to avoid oysters from infected sections and
told that raw shellfish often contain the seeds of
typhoid. We shudder when we see fresh fruits and
vegetables berries, lettuce, celery and similar green
goods, exposed on the dustv street corner in the
A
( B<yJudith Drury La,
cy
Are you sure? \\ hat care is given the milk just after
it comes from the cows? Do you know bacteria are
said to multiply to an unbelievable extent every
twenty or thirty minutes in warm milk—that which
comes straight from the cow to your kitchen? The
only way to be sure of its safety
is by cooling the milk immedi
ately, either by putting it at
once on the
ice or by set
ting the ves
sels contain
ing it in cold
water and
’ eeping
GRO CE'JKY themiik
♦ i 1 closely
From the sewer to the oyster bed to the house is
a short trip for typhoid
fV-A
itJCE HOISE
A
■C' . .
Foul ice pollutes pure drinking water
full current of.
the wind with
its burden of
microbes pick
ed up from
the pavement.
Hut how about
one of the
staples of life—milk? We may banish oysters from
our table, renounce uncooked fruits and vegetables,
but how much attention do we pay to our milksupply?
Do we know where it comes from, the condition of
the cows who yield it or how it is handled on its way
to us? What care do we give it after it is in our
homes? Yet milk is one of the most sensitive foods
to bacteria and may spread disease and death more
generally than any other one staple.
A typhoid epidemic occurring recently was traced
directly to milk from a reputable source. The milk
was followed through the hands of
various dealers, all of whom had
given it proper care. After the
cows from whom it came had been
identified and proved to be in good
condition, it was discovered that
the cans in which the milk was
transported had been washed at the dairy in water
tainted with typhoid germsl
There are many other cases of the same kind.
One of scarlet fever, in a Massachusetts town,
opened the first day with seven victims, showed
seventy-three in the next seven days and followed
these with four hundred and eighty-three patients
in the live days succeeding! All of these were traced
to the milk supply and the entire epidemic proved
to have come from one taster with scarlet fever who
had put the spoon from which he had
taken a sip of milk back into the can.
Housekeepers should ascertain
where their milk comes from and see
that health conditions are complied
with in its handling. The so-called
“loose” milk should never be
bought. That which comes in
sealed bottles has a far better
chance of being clean than the
“loose” milk could possibly
have. Who has not seen the
milkman take milk from cans
with a dipper, his hands far from clean, the dipper
almost surely imperfectly cleansed, the can open and
offering a cordial reception to any wandering microbe?
No one can guess how much illness of different
kinds is due to the apparently harmless drink of
milk we give our children.
“ There is a danger we can
escape!” some of you may say:
“We have our own cow and
know all about the milk, who
does the milking and how it is
handled. We need mrt worry Sun is the gertns . great
about our milk supply! foe
■ 3
covered all $
The germ-laden city dust enters the house on fruit and
vegetables unless the grocer screens them
Cold storage does not
kill germs
„ | VEGETABLES
the time.
Don’t let
it cool by
the effect
of the at
mosphere
alone. Observation shows that milk in a can will
keep warm nearly twelve hours if not artificially
chilled. Look to that, you housekeepers who con
gratulate yourselves on having your own cows or
who buy milk from a neighbor with a dairy.
There are further chances for infection in your
own kitchen. Are you always scrupulously care
ful that the pans and jars in which milk is kept are
clean? Not superficially clean, but free from any
foreign matter which may spell contagion? A pail
with a seam in it is one of the breeding places es
pecially favored by the milk bacillus and a bottle
or a pitcher with a narrow neck
which, making it difficult to clean
thoroughly, is a cherished refuge.
Bestow your best attention upon
the milk holders of every descrip
tion. The farmers’ wives are in the
right when they put their milk pans
to sun after they are washed. Sun and fresh air are
potent disinfectants and the milk pails and pans and
pitchers should have their full share of both, ft is not
enough that there should be no sour smell about the
utensils. More than this is required
foi the vessels that are to contain
milk—rinse them first in cold water,
then scald with clean boiling water
—then the sun.
Take particular pains also to
keep the milk in a cold place.
Even pasteurized milk breeds
germs if it is not kept chilled after treatment. In
fact, it is even worse than the uncooked in ilk, foi
although the pasteurization destroys certain bacteria
it leaves the spores unalfected and if the tempera
ture of the milk is permitted to rise the spores
develop into flourishing bacteria. Milk, pasteurized
or plain, should be in a cold place and always kepi
covered.
What do the germs do? Several unpleasant things.
They start typhoid fever, if they are of one variety.
Also they show themselves in scarlet fever and scar
latina and diphtheria and in sundry sorts of intesti
nal disturbance. That much we know 7 positively.
Perhaps the field of their greatest activity is among
the most helpless class of the community—babies
and little children.
There are other objects for your care. In these days
of high cost of living we are tempted by bargains in
food. Alany are the occasions when the cheapest
proves the dearest in the long run. Vegetables and
fruits which are low in price because not perfectly
fresh, fish which is inexpensive because it has been
kept in cold storage, may amount to more in doctors’
bills and in suffering than the sum you save in mar-
Jelly is a magnet for
germs
ik
madeonATI
OF MONTH
r ion....
g
keting. There is less danger in meat than in some
other foods, not only because cooking destroys the
germs in meat, but because when it is sufficiently
infected to be dangerous it has usually reached so
advanced a stage of decay as to be too offensive to
eat. Fish and shellfish are not so and may be deadly
while still eatable.
Cheap ice-cream is another danger. How often
we read most frequently of families being made ill
by ice-cream. This is usually because it has been
made of milk which has been kept too long or in
unclean receptacles or has been infected in the
handling. Or perhaps the ice-cream has been made
for some time. In small towns the supply of ice
cream is often brought from large cities and long dis
tances and has been kept until germs have developed
in it. Freezing does not destroy germs byany means,
and they breed in ice-cream which has been packed
and kept indefinitely.
Even in drinking water there are perils, especially
when it has ice in it—ice which often comes from in
fected sources. Unless you are positive that there is
no chance of contamination of your ice supply, never
put it into water. Fill
bottles and put them
on the ice instead.
Then there is the
house-fly. In spite of
the efforts made to
sweep him from the face of the earth as a serious
menace to general health he continues to flourish
and people go on taking him for granted. Think
of the places where you meet the fly and find
him at home. At your baker’s, feeding on the rolls
and cakes and pies you and other housekeepers buy,
at the delicatessen shop, walking over the food with
which you supplement your Sunday night supper or
piece out a hasty meal, on the vegetables and fruits
and meats in the market. Where
had he been before he alighted f
on that food? On what refuse
had he been feasting? What
germs of disease had adhered to
his legs and wings and been de
posited from them on the pro
visions your family will eat?
Flies and germ-laden dust have their opportunity
in a habit common to housekeepers—of setting hot
puddings or pies or cakes or jellies to cool or to form
and leaving them uncovered during the process.
When you reflect that gelatine is the culture medium
in which germs are matured for examination, you
may understand what a joy a
mold of jelly on the porch or
in the cellar is to a life-loving
microbe!
If all housekeepers would refuse
positively to buy provisions of
any sort that are not properly
protected against contamination,
there would be a speedy improvement in market
and shop conditions. That cleanliness in such lines
pays, is demonstrated by the success of some bakers
and dealers who make a point of hygienic surround
ings in their manufactures and send out their food
in sealed packages. Buy such things, refuse to buy
the others and there will soon be a change for the
better.
Take care of the food when you get it home.
Put milk
where it is
cold and
keep it
cover ed.
Cleanse
salads and
uncooked vegetables with many washings before you
serve them. Keep your meat in a wire safe, bread
in a bread box; never leave food uncovered on the
kitchen table for a minute unless the windows and
doors are so well screened that no fly can find en
trance; scour your ice-box regularly with soap and
water and washing soda and never permit stale food
to accumulate.
The fly is the microbe
parcel-post
9 Days
I EATEN ON 12^1
OP MONTH
X
Old ice-cream is a germ-nursery
DANGER. I
Milk is exposed to germs from the cow to the
mouth