Sowing for Physical and Spiritual Health by David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 6, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 45.

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Sowing for Physical and Spiritual Health

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson & W. S. Sadler

MILK.

(Continued.)

MILK, THE GERMS’ PARADISE.

Many do not fully understand why milk should be so favorable a medium for the growth and development of germs. A simple illustration will undoubtedly make the matter clear. If we place meat on one plate and fruit on another, the same microbes will fall on both. Those germs that flourish on the meat, and cause it to decay, will starve to death on the fruit, because it does not furnish them the proper food substance. Each tribe of germs needs some special food substance. Milk contains so many different food elements that it is possible for quite a variety of germs to flourish in it. More than fifty different kinds of germs have been found in a single specimen of cow’s milk. The germs that naturally thrive on flesh food can live upon the proteids, or casein, of milk. Those that feel at home in butter can live upon the fat globules of milk. Those that cause fermentation of sugar find an inviting field in working upon the same substance in milk.

Some one has said that Herod slew his hundreds, but the feeding bottle has slain its thousands. When it is not kept properly sterilized, germs that secrete virulent poisons gather on the rubber nipple and tubing, which become virtually a paradise for germs. It is absolutely wrong to attempt to rear a child on a bottle unless special pains is taken daily to sterilize the bottle and all its fixtures, so that the child’s life shall not be endangered in this method of feeding.

Average milk is undoubtedly, and without any exception, the filthiest food that is eaten; for, from the moment it leaves the cow until it finds its way to the table, it is liable to contamination. Investigating this question, Professor Conn found that the milk of Boston contained one hundred and thirty-five thousand germs to the ounce. In a certain Western city, another investigator found sixty million germs to the ounce, in the milk sold in open market. Milk sold in European cities has been found to contain even a much higher percentage of microbes, in some instances as high as one hundred and fifty million in an ounce. Thus milk often becomes a messenger of death to the human race. There is scarcely any other food substance that is known habitually to have as many dangerous germs and various toxins, as milk.

SOURCES OF MILK CONTAMINATION.

1. The Cow Herself.—The curse of disease, which is everywhere resting heavily upon the human race, seems also to be shared largely by those animals that have been closely associated with man. To all human appearances, the strictly healthy cow will soon be as great a rarity as the absolutely healthy man now is. That dread disease, tuberculosis, which is at present responsible for the death of one third of all persons who die between the ages of fifteen and sixty, is affecting cattle to a greater

degree than any other disease. The Board of Live Stock Commissioners of Illinois estimated that of the sixty thousand cows supplying milk to Chicago, twenty thousand are affected with this disease; and when the milk from these is mixed with that from the supposedly healthy ones, as is generally the case, naturally it all becomes contaminated.

Unfortunately, tuberculosis seems to be more frequent in the high-bred animals than in the ordinary common stock. These animals are bred close in order to produce good milkers, and thus they lose to a certain extent the physical resistance which they would otherwise have. Some of the most famous herds have been examined, and in the majority of them as high as fifty per cent had tuberculosis. About four years ago, the State of New York spent fifty thousand dollars in attempting to stamp out this disease among the cattle of that State, but without any noticeable effect.

Many have consoled themselves with the suggestion that if the mammary glands were not affected, the tuberculosis in other parts of the cow’s body could not affect the milk. While such milk would undoubtedly not contain the real, active germs of the disease, it would contain more or less of the peculiar poison known as “tuberculin,” which is the product of these germs. If this poison is injected into a cow which already has tuberculosis in any part of its body, in a few hours there will be a marked rise in temperature. This fact has made it a valuable test for tuberculosis in cattle.

A very practical lesson may be drawn from this. Thousands of children have some form of latent tuberculosis, which, with greatest care and best feeding, they will undoubtedly outlive; but if the milk upon which they are daily fed contains tuberculin, it has a tendency to fan into active life this disease. If tuberculin is injected into a consumptive, in a few hours he will have a marked rise of temperature, thus giving a practical demonstration of the principle that has just been stated in reference to infants.

With these evidences all about us, it is plain that food should be found to take the place of milk, even though at first sight it may seem more expensive; for disease, coffins, and funerals are even more expensive than proper though expensive food.

2. Contamination while Milking.—The milk from a healthy cow is perfectly sterile; but there is always a little milk left at the end of the teat, upon which germs flourish. This furnishes the first source of contamination.

Next, the cow in the barn usually has chaff, dust, and other substances, on her back, which often gradually fall into the milk bucket while the milking proceeds. To the milkman or the milkmaid this does not seem a serious matter, as they know that careful straining will remove it all; but the germs and the particles of dust and filth adhering to these substances, pass through the strainer, and help to make up a part of the dangerous constituents of ordinary milk.

Often the cows that supply milk to the large cities are fed upon slops from the breweries. They are kept in close, ill-ventilated quarters, and their bodies are scarcely cleaned at all. Frequently they are literally covered with filth, and this becomes another most serious source of contamination. There is a marked inconsistency between the beautiful landscape painting on the average dairy wagon and the horrible streaks of filth that accumulate on the hands of the milker during the process of milking; for it is only too true that the thoroughly cleanly milkman or milkmaid is an exception, rather than the rule.

3. Contamination during Subsequent Handling.—A common cause of contamination is the practice of adding water as a means of adulteration, the water used being neither sterilized nor filtered. Whole epidemics of typhoid fever have been traced to this cause alone.

(a) Infected Cans.—Some milkmen take great pains to scald their milking utensils, but many merely rinse them in water that is actually filthy. In a great outbreak of typhoid fever, it was found that only those who had patronized a certain dairy were affected. Upon investigation, the health officers found that the cows were kept clean, but that the milkman daily rinsed his cans at a neighbor’s well, which had become infected from the stools of a typhoid-fever patient.

(b) Infection by Germs.—Some of the characteristic flavors of milk and butter are only the products of bacterial life. It has been recently found that the peculiar flavor which has made the milk and butter of some sections of the country famous, is due to the productions of special germs which flourish in that region. Enterprising milkmen in other parts of the country have secured growths of these germs, and inoculated their respective grades of milk with the same, and thus have been able successfully to compete with those farmers who supposed that the peculiar flavor was due to their beautiful clover meadows.

In addition to the germs that produce the souring of milk, there occasionally develops in cheese, and sometimes in ice cream, a very dangerous product, which was first isolated and described a few years ago by Dr. Vaughan, of the University of Michigan, and named by him “tyrotoxicon.” This poisonous substance has been the cause of many deaths, and numerous cases of severe illness.

(c) Chemical Preservatives.—Unscrupulous milkmen, in order to preserve the milk fresh for a greater length of time than they otherwise could, and to avoid the necessity of sterilizing the same, resort to the practice of adding salicylic acid, boric acid, and similar preservatives. All these drugs have a more or less harmful effect on the human system.

(d) General Adulteration.—The commercial process of condensing milk affords a good opportunity to deprive it of some of its most nutrient qualities, and put in their place cheap substitutes. Out of fourteen samples of condensed milk which were examined, it was found that eleven had most of the fat removed. The bulk of some varieties of condensed milk is largely made up of cheap sugar.

Copyrighted, 1900, by David Paulson and W. S. Sadler.