Random In 1850s, An Epidemic Caused By Milk Killed Nearly 8,000 Babies (10 items)

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  (#7) The Food And Drug Act Was Signed In The Early 1900s As Response To The Swill Milk Scandal

  The Swill Milk Scandal in New York City prompted officials to keep a better eye on food safety. The state of New York regulated swill milk, and improvements in transportation helped provide cities with more rural products. Other major US cities, like Philadelphia and Chicago, and international locations such as Liepzig, Germany, continued to have swill milk on the market.

  Cities began hiring milk inspectors in the late 19th century, and the federal government passed the Food and Drug Act in 1906. The act prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquor.” 

  Alongside legal movements to make food safer, there was a push to pasteurize milk. Louis Pasteur developed his process during the 1850s and 1860s. Nathan Straus, co-owner of Macy's, set up his own pasteurization plant in 1893 and sold affordable, sterile milk at 18 locations around the city. 
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  (#2) Because There Were So Many Other Diseases In The City, It Took Time For People To Realize What Was Happening

  During the 19th century, infant mortality was on the rise in New York City. Diseases like cholera and typhoid were a part of everyday life, as was losing infants. When children began dying from drinking swill milk, there was little reason to believe that anything was different from the status quo. Most weren't even aware the incidents were happening because of the milk, as all of the other mortality causes seemed like valid explanations.
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  (#10) Whiskey Companies Began Feeding Their Spent Grain To Cows They Housed Near Their Distilleries

  Feeding cows wasn't cheap, but distilleries found a way to use their grain waste. Distilleries used massive amounts of wheat - soaking, fermenting, and extracting alcohol from thousands of bushels a day. To maximize their profits, distilleries began using the leftover byproduct - swill - to feed cows that they housed nearby. Some distilleries housed cows in buildings next to their main buildings, piping in hot swill to large numbers of cows. 
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  (#1) In 1857, Over 8,000 Infants Perished From Drinking Swill Milk

  According to authorities, 8,000 infants perished from drinking swill milk in 1857. New York City Inspector David Reese wrote in 1857:

  Distilleries in or near large cities... an intolerable nuisance and curse... wherever they exist, their slops will furnish the cheapest food for cows, the milk from which is more pernicious and fatal to infant health and life than alcohol itself to adults... So long as distilleries are tolerated in cities, cow stables will be their appendages, and the milk, fraught with sickness and death, will still perpetuate mortality...

  Many lower and middle class families at the time didn't have a lot of choice when it came to giving their kids the milk because it was the only affordable option for them. It's estimated that 50 to 80% of the milk consumed in northeastern cities was swill milk.
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  (#5) Leslie Frank's Illustrated Newspaper Wrote Extensively On Swill Milk, Exposing The Industry To The Masses

  An eight-article series in Leslie Frank's Illustrated Newspaper in 1858 exposed the swill milk industry with scathing commentary and pictures documenting the industry. 

  The New York Times commented on the exposé: 

  Unpromisingly matters stood, when Frank Leslie found left at his door as milk a disgusting dose of milk and pus, which fairly threw his illustrated newspaper into an emetic convulsion. Bound to know the worst of the horrible story, he analyzed the specimen, and then dispatched his corps of reporters and artists to the head-quarters of the poison … He has reproduced pictures that are true to the life, and so shocking that the very word milk, or the sight of dainties into which it enters as an important component, turns the stomach. The whole town suffers nausea.

  Non-swill milk producers began taking out ads to promote their "pure" milk. Lawmakers were outraged, but it was still years before they took action, banning the sale of swill milk in 1861.
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  (#9) There Were Thousands Of Cows In New York City By The 1840s

  By the 1840s, New York City's 500 dairies housed half the cows in the city. The other cows were kept in shanty areas near distilleries where they were used to produce swill milk. 

  It wasn't until the early 20th century, when refrigeration and transportation improved, that herds were largely removed from urban centers. 

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