Milk. A portion of the wells are driven wells, which afford no security whatever from pollution-in fact are worse than dug wells properly constructed. In view of the importance of this matter, as a sanitary measure, it is suggested that the State Board take some action thereon, and that recommendations, if not positive regulations, be made for school-houses to be supplied with water from water-works in all cities and towns where water-works are in operation, especially when analysis shows the water to be of good quality, and safely potable. Village and country schools should have the well at least one hundred feet from any privy or stable, and the topography of the contiguous surface should be such as to secure rapid and free drain age in every direction from the well for the farthest possible distance. It should be free from the shade of trees and accessible to uninterrupted air currents. MILK. It is an inherent, a sovereign-it may be said a natural right of individuals and communities to know the exact character of what they eat and drink, and to require that they shall be healthful. This right is founded in the law of self-preservation. In proportion therefore, as an individual or a community guard themselves by rigorous surveillance over the producers or dealers in these, so will they be improved, and so will be the measure of their health. Cows' milk is one of the most important elements of the daily food of the people, and far more important, it is the very life of the large majority of children, and with whom the quality is a question of life and death. Pure and wholesome milk cannot be obtained except from a perfectly healthy animal. To preserve and maintain the health of a cow she must have good food, pure water, fresh air, light, daily Milk. outdoor exercise, and be kept clean. A failure in any one of these particulars will result in impairment of her milk. Neither can pure and wholesome milk be obtained from a dairy, unless it be kept in accordance with sanitary regulations. The rule for the cow must be supplemented in the dairy. Given this as the standard by which to determine the character of the milk supply, it remains with every individual and community to ascertain what are the facts. When it is known that there is developed in milk frequently a poisonous substance known as Tyrotoxicon, and that bad milk is the medium of communicating many diseases, especially among children, and that these diseases are most frequent among the poorer, or laboring clases, where fresh milk is rarely had, the frequency of these diseases, and the importance of pure milk can be readily understood. The opinion is becoming quite general that the prevalence of Cholera Infantum is caused largely by milk. The milk is drawn from unclean udders, into unclean vessels, jolted over miles of road, and then set away in an impure cellar or pantry, or ice-box with vegetables or meat, and then fed to the "little one" through that abomination of all abominations, the nursing bottle and rubber tube, for it is well-nigh impossible to keep them clean; crusts of decomposing milk form at the neck of the bottle, in the nipple and tube, tending to the decomposition of the entire contents of the bottle. A safer method is a nipple spread over the neck of a bottle, if artificial means are necessary, as both can be easily kept clean. Milk is also a rapid absorber of foul odors and disease germs, and formidable epidemics of Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Typhoid Fever have been traced directly to contaminated milk. An epidemic of Scarlet Fever in London covering a large area was traced directly to a single dairy. An epidemic of Typhoid Fever in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was traced to a dairy in New Hampshire, where the privy vaults drained into the well from which water was taken to wash the milk cans, the vault having been infected previously by a Typhoid Fever case. Milk. Dr. Vaughan, the discoverer of Tyrotoxicon, has given the following rules for the prevention of the development of Tyrotoxicon in milk: 1. The cows should be healthy and the milk of any animal which seems indisposed should not be mixed with that from the perfectly healthy animals. 2. Cows must not be fed upon swill, or the refuse of breweries, or glucose factories, or any other fermented food. 3. Cows must not be allowed to drink stagnant water; but must have free access to pure, fresh water. 4. Cows must not be heated or worried before being milked. 5. The pasture must be free from noxious weeds, and the barn and yard must be kept clean. 6. The udder should be washed, if at all dirty, before the milking. 7. The milk must be at once thoroughly cooled. This is best done by placing the milk can in a tank of cold spring water or ice-water, the water being of the same depth as the milk in the can. It would be well if the water in the tank could be kept flowing; indeed, this will be necessary unless ice water is used. The tank should be thoroughly cleansed every day to prevent bad odors. The can should remain uncovered during the cooling, and the milk should be gently stirred. The temperature should be reduced sixty degrees Fahrenheit within an hour. The can should remain in the cold water until ready for delivery. 8. In Summer, when ready for delivery, the top should be placed on the can and a cloth wet in cold water should be spread over the can, or refrigerator cans may be used. At no season should the milk be frozen; but no buyer should receive milk which has a temperature higher than sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit. 9. After the milk has been received by the consumer, it should be kept in a perfectly clean place, free from dust, at a temperature not exceeding sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Milk should not be allowed to stand uncovered, even for a short time, in sleeping or living rooms. In many of the better houses in the country and villages, and occasionally in the cities, the drain from the refrigerator leads into a cess-pool or kitchen drain. This is highly dangerous; there should be no connection between the refrigerator and any receptacle of filth. 10. The only vessels in which milk should be kept are tin, glass or porcelain. After using the vessel, it should be scalded and then, if possible, exposed to the air The State Board of Health has for sanitary purposes, fixed the following as the standard of pure and healthful milk in the State: While the statutes provide a penalty for the adulteration of food, there is no standard of purity of milk fixed by law, and by which an adulteration or value of milk as food could be lawfully determined. It is confidently expected the next legislature will supply this need. TYROTOXICON. Several cases of poisoning from eating ice-cream occurred during the biennial period, the most serious at Adair, on July 4th, 1889, wherein over one hundred and twenty persons were affected. The symptoms were choleric and quite alarming. The suspicion was that the poisoning was caused by tin, or the vanilla extract with which the ice-cream was flavored. Under proper treatment the trouble subsided in a few hours, with no fatal results. A quantity of the milk, cream and vanilla used was sent to the State Board and was submitted to a chemist for analysis. The following is the report of the chemist. DR. J. F. KENNEDY, Secretary Iowa State Board of Health: DEAR SIR-I have the honor to forward to you my report of the finding, by chemical analysis of the samples of milk and cream, and also the vanilla used in making the ice-cream that poisoned over one hundred persons at Adair, Iowa, on July 4, 1889. The bottles were labeled as follows: 1. Clear milk. 2. Frozen cream. 3. Frozen cream. 4. Vanilla extract. 5. Frozen cream. 6. Frozen cream. Tyrotoxicon. I received the box July 6th, and put the bottles at once in ice-box. I tested the vanilla for mineral poisons, also for vegetable alkaloids, with negative results. I took fifteen drops, and that having no appreciable effect, I took thirty drops, and was convinced that the toxic principle was not in the vanilla. On inspecting the bottles after taking them from the ice, and raising the temperature seventy-five or eighty degrees Fahrenheit, there was an active state of fermentation developed, and on examination with the microscope, there was observable a great abundance of bacteria actively at work. In a few hours the carbonic acid liberated, was sufficient to force the stoppers from the bottles. On examining the samples of frozen cream and milk for salts of tin and zinc the results were negative. I then proceeded by the methods of Vaughan and Novy, to obtain a ptomaine, if any, and the result was a nice crop of fine crystals of that form of ptomaine called by Vaughan, Tyrotoxicon. On mixing a dose of these crystals in some fresh milk, and feeding to a half grown cat, the physical effects were very marked-vomiting, purging and great prostration. I am well satisfied that the poison was no other than Tyrotoxicon developed by the action, or through the agency of a certain species of basteria. The views entertained at the present time by scientific observers are that each specific pathogenetic micro-organism produces its own characteristic poison. A ptomaine is formed during the putrefaction of organic matter. On account of their resemblance to the vegetable alkaloids, ptomaines may be called putrefactive alkaloids. While some of the ptomaines are exceedingly poisonous, others are not. All the poisonous substances formed during putrefaction are not ptomaines. Ptomaines are temporary forms, through which water passes while being transformed by the activity of bacterial life from the organic to the inorganic state. (Pasteur.) The kind of ptomaine formed, depends upon the species of the individual bacterium engaged in its production, the nature of the material acted upon, and the conditions under which putrefaction goes on. The bacteria are the agents that work out the changes in complex organic substances in breaking them up into their original inorganic elements. Inasmuch as milk is such a valuable and universal article of food, too great care cannot be exercised in its management. It is a notorious fact that milk readily takes up disagreeable odors when standing a short time in a foul atmosphere. Cows are sometimes allowed to stand, and are milked in filthy barns; the udders are not washed before milking; the vessels for the milk are not as clean as they should be. There can be no doubt that greater attention to the milk used by infants would result in saving many thousands of lives annually. I beg leave to suggest the following points to be observed by dairy-men: 1. No chemical to preserve the sweetness of the milk or adulterant of any kind should be used at any time. 2. No milk should be saved from diseased or unhealthy cattle. |