inspection of dairies, slaughterhouses, and other sanitary work; inspection of milk[1] and other food stuffs; the department gathers vital statistics; it enforces the rules for disinfection of public buildings.
Importance of Coöperation with the Health Department.—Only an ignorant and short-sighted person would fail to coöperate promptly and cheerfully with local or state health officers. It is for the benefit and protection of every one that the truth concerning contagious diseases be reported promptly. Only in this way may outbreaks of disease be prevented and many lives saved. He is a bad citizen and a public enemy who will conceal a case of disease dangerous to the community. Outbreaks of fatal diseases may be easily prevented or stamped out if the health officer is sustained and his directions carried out.
- ↑ Milk may be sterilized by boiling, but boiled milk is not digestible nor nutritious. Milk may be Pasteurized by immersing bottles of milk in water which is kept nearly (but not quite) at boiling point (160° F.) for five minutes. But this makes the milk less valuable than fresh milk, and destroys beneficent microbes. Buttermilk has many such microbes, which kill injurious microbes and purify the stomach. Cleanliness, or an aseptic condition, is far preferable to antiseptics.
