The duty of physicians in regard to dairies will be restricted to determining by inspection the value and the purity of their products. Whether a milk in its course from stable to consumer has been pas teurized or sterilized once, or oftener„ should be marked on every one of its products, Milk is sold directly from the dairy in shops, by delivery, and from milk-wagons. The milk that is delivered ought to suffer no dete rioration. A pasteboard cover is better than the easily removable lead. Shops in which milk is sold must be abundantly ventilated and cool, and must not open into sleeping-rooms. Stationary receptacles must, in Prussia, bear a permanent mark, visible to purchasers, designating Lieir contents either as unskimmed milk, containing at least 2.7 per cent. fat, or as skimmed milk. Half milk. which in Austria is sold under various names as a mixture of unskimmed milk, skim milk, and water, should be strictly excluded from sale. The physician must recommend the shops which are clean, reliable, and, in summer, provided with ice. It is almost impossible to supervise the sale of milk from the primitive wagons of the milk-women: these have rightly been supplanted by the modern milk-wagons of the which carry ice in summer and draw the milk through several faucets, which are protected by valves. The cans should be sealed in the dairy and furnished with it mixer, a kind Of wooden float. Some means should be adopted to protect the wagons from the dirt of the streets. Booths where the milk is sold by the glass. as at Cologne, and slot-machines for cold and worm milk, as at Stock holm, are commendable.
Hygienic care of milk can be furthered by legislative enoctment, or by corporate or private dairies which secure milk of the proper qual ity by paying according to the amount of fat, and which promote clean liness by stipulating in the contract that the milk shod be tested for impurities. In this eiTort, rewards of stable employees for neatness, and warning and exclusion of the producer for uncleanliness, may play a part. Associations of milk producers may also be formed, under the guidance of physicians and veterinarians, who should assume the direc tion and advice, while the members receive the benefit of a special designation for their milk. (Certified AIilk in New York.) Insurance against loss by epidemics among cows or the employees may he obtained through associations or unions. Neat stables should be encouraged in the cities and unclean ones abolished. The use of skim milk and butter milk should be promoted, in order to secure for these by-products a price corresponding to their nutrimental value. All producers should
be educated in the art of cleanly milking.
[Milk is on sale in many cities of the United States which is vouched for and regularly examined by a committee or commission appointed by the local medical society. Such milk is sold as "Certified Milk" having the guarantee of the medical society. The following list of requirements of the Albany County Medical Society will give an idea of the standard of cleanliness required: The physician must direct the straining of all milk for the use of infants through thick straining-bags, made of the finest b(flting-cloth, or through cotton-wool filters for domestic use. This is at the same time a test of the impurities. Tests by tasting and boiling are also important; the alcohol test, in spite of its simplicity, will hardly find acceptance. The integrity of the covers of bottles of prepared sterilized milk can be verified by the respective adhesion and contraction of the rubber covers, and, in this case as well as when metal caps are used, by the clacking sound which is produced by tapping on the bottom of the inverted bottle with the knuckles. Cooling may lie effected by means of refrig erators, by cooling-jars connected with the water pipes, by water drip ping from a faucet upon the bottles packed separately in shavings, or, when there 's no other way, by changing the water. A refrigerator built into the wall near the waste-pipe and cooled by the water passing out through coils of pipe encircling it would be a great convenience in every home.
Sterilization by boiling for 10 minutes in individual bottles sub merged in water is to be preferred, because it insures a definite amount of food, uniform proportion of fat, and sufficient sterilization, while forming only a thin skin. The appliances for drawing the milk should be ample, and automatic covers should be provided for the bottles, as described by Soxhlet, Oldendorf, Gentile, etc. The cheapest are medi cine bottles (obtainable in any size), which should he boiled in a pot packed with shavings and half full of water. The bottles may after wards be tightly closed with corks, which were also boiled at the same time. The cooling in the pot should be first gradual and then rapid. The bottles should be thoroughly cleaned with soda and a brush.
Milk thermophores are reliable only when the bottles are still hot when introduced.