The work done in various laboratories during the last 10 to 15 years has clearly established that the ice cream ordinarily offered tor sale contains large and frequently enormous numbers of bacteria. As a result, certain health departments have begun to consider the sanitary as well as the chemical condition of the ice cream sold within their districts and have established various regulations intended to prevent the sale of a product that may contain organisms liable to set up diseased conditions in the persons consuming it. These regulations are undoubtedly of value and many of them have been of great help in improving the quality of the ice cream sold, but it is very evident to persons giving them any attention that our knowledge of the bacteria in ice cream, as well as the influence of such procedures as storage, freezing and hardening on the numbers of organisms present is insufficient to permit of the establishment of fair and consistent bacterial standards.