Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
In his relation to this problem each person must decide for himself.
We do not cease to ride in the cars because there is danger here, nor
do the innumerable accidents from bicycling deter us from this
pleasure. Ought we to give up milk because of an occasional instance
of disease? It might be possible to give advice to use milk freely,
looking upon the danger as a slight one and one of the unavoidable
dangers of living, but if such advice is given some one will instantly
declare it bad advice. It might be possible to advise boiling all milk
before drinking, and again some authority would say that this is
unnecessary and bad. Personally, the author, though living in a small
community, uses raw milk with perfect freedom, but would regard it as
unwise to allow young children, especially infants, to use it in this
way.
As already stated, the agitation over the milk supply is greater in
Europe than in this country. While in England milk is used much as in
this country, on the continent really little milk is drunk raw, and
there is a growing demand for some means which shall deprive milk of
the suspicions attached to it. This demand has been rapidly growing in
recent years, and has resulted in the appearance of two new
industries. These are the preparation of _sterilized_ and
_Pasteurized_ milk. Neither of these industries has as yet developed
much in the United States, although in our larger cities beginnings
are being made along similar lines.
_Sterilized_ milk has been used for many years. Long ago our doctors
learned to recommend, for invalids, that milk should be boiled before
drinking. This was done before the matter of its relation to bacteria
was understood, and when physicians simply conceived that the boiling
rendered the milk more digestible. From being used by invalids it came
to be suggested in feeding infants, and then, after the relation of
milk to possible disease germs had been understood, the general
sterilization of milk was widely recommended. The process of
sterilization of milk has not taken much of a hold upon the people of
this country as yet, nor has it in England. In continental Europe,
especially in northern countries, where the amount of tuberculosis is
very large, it has made rapid headway, and now in most of the cities
sterilized milk can be bought on the streets just as easily as
ordinary milk.
In sterilizing milk as it is done in Europe the destruction of the
disease germs is not the only purpose. An object of perhaps equal
weight is to produce a milk that will keep. There are many
circumstances where it is desirable to carry milk for long distances,
and to lay in a supply to last many days or even weeks. Under these
circumstances sterilization is resorted to, since it preserves the
milk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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