inasmuch as the dairy is necessarily called upon to bear the expense of inspection. However, the superior quality of such milk and its certain freedom from infection more than offsets the increased price, and makes certified milk the ideal food of a milk character, not only in the family, but especially in the hospitals, orphan asylums and other public institutions. It seems quite certain that in the near future practically all the milk that is sold upon the market of the country will be of a certified quality.
Pasteurized Milk.—When milk is heated to a temperature of about 140 to 160 degrees the greater part of the living organisms contained therein are destroyed. At the same time the temperature is not high enough to give to the milk that peculiar taste which it acquires when boiled. Such pasteurized milk, placed in sterilized bottles, stoppered with sterilized stoppers and kept in a cool place, will keep many days and even weeks without apparent deterioration. Physicians and hygienists are quite agreed that pasteurized milk is not so wholesome, especially for children, as certified milk which has not been subjected to a heat sufficiently high to kill the organisms contained therein. The natural ferments of the milk, namely, the enzymes which produce the lactic fermentations, promote rather than interfere with the digestion of the product. The killing of the beneficial organisms of the milk is only justified when there is danger of pathological germs being present. Hence the pasteurization of milk must in this sense be regarded as a substitute for inspection and certification.
There may arise cases where pasteurizing even of certified milk may be desirable, namely, when from necessity it must be kept for a considerable period before use, as on shipboard, and other places inaccessible to a daily supply of fresh milk. Pasteurizing is also justifiable in miscellaneous milk supplies, the origin of which is unknown. It is safer, by far in this case, to pasteurize than take the chance of consuming pathological germs.
Pasteurizing of Milk.—A convenient method of pasteurizing milk is recommended by the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture, which is as follows:
Directions for the Pasteurization of Milk.[1]—The pasteurization of milk for children, now quite extensively practiced in order to destroy the injurious germs which it may contain, can be satisfactorily accomplished with very simple apparatus. The vessel containing the milk, which may be the bottle from which it is to be used or any other suitable vessel, is placed inside of a larger vessel of metal, which contains water. If a bottle, it is plugged with absorbent cotton, if this is at hand, or in its absence other clean cotton will answer. A small fruit jar loosely covered may be used instead of a bottle. The requirements are simply that the interior vessel shall be raised about half an inch above the bottom of the other, and that the water shall reach nearly
- ↑ By Dr. De Schweinitz.
