Adulterated Milk Crisis in Seattle
A child is dying in Seattle after consuming milk tainted with formaldehyde, sparking a potential murder investigation against a local dairyman.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Seattle—Inspector Woodcock is out with a warrant for the arrest of a dairyman who delivers milk in the vicinity of Howell street. This dairyman will be arrested on the charge of adulterating milk, but, according to the prosecuting attorney's office, it is not unlikely that a much more serious charge may be brought against him, or against the proprietors of the dairy for whom he works. Murder may be the charge if a little child of 14 months, now lying in the shadow of death, succumbs to the invidious poison which has wasted away the vitality of its little body. The baby's parents are Greeks and can speak but little English, but a most pitiful story has been gleaned by reporters. No physician could be called in because of their inability to pay a fee, but when the little one became so wasted and frail that the mother could bear it no longer, she appealed to Dr. Ludlow of the board of health. Dr. Ludlow found that the child was in a dying condition, due directly to the effects of formaldehyde administered in the milk. He took a sample to G. L. Tanzer, the special analytical chemist, and a large percentage of formaldehyde was found in the sample.
“The child's illness was positively due to the effects of a poisonous preservative in the milk.”
This case highlights the dangerous lack of food safety regulations in the early 20th century, where preservatives like formaldehyde were used to hide spoilage. It serves as a reminder of why the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 became a necessary civic response to corporate negligence.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.