i4 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan ., 



inevitable risk of contamination from the time it leaves even a healthy 

 dairy, a large percentage become infected. This is a matter that 

 should receive the immediate attention of local authorities ; but it is 

 to be remembered that it is a precaution necessary only because of 

 our national carelessness in securing the disinfection of existing cases 

 of disease. 



A peculiarity of the typhoid bacillus, which is specially common 

 in milk, is its affection for acids and its dislike of alkaline fluids. 

 A common " history " of infection by typhoid is that the patient went 

 for a long country walk and feeling hungry had a drink of milk at a 

 farm-house. When the stomach is empty and hungry its reaction is 

 acid, and it is therefore a suitable medium for the growth of the 

 microbes of typhoid. The obvious practical moral is to drink only 

 boiled or sterilised milk when you are hungry, or to avoid it. This 

 explains the importance of boiling milk for invalids or babies who are 

 being fed upon it. On the other hand, after a full meal, when the 

 stomach is no longer acid, milk is less dangerous. 



The Tubercle Commission. 

 The appointment of a commission to investigate the relation of 

 tuberculous meat to the spread of tubercle among human beings is 

 a timely provision of Government. Anyone who has assisted at post- 

 mortems upon animals that have died in menageries or in farmyards, or 

 that have been killed in the ordinary way by the butcher, must have 

 been astonished at the frequency of tubercle. Except in extreme 

 cases, the tuberculous nodules occur most frequently in the viscera, 

 and the carcass as it reaches the butcher's shop shows no trace of the 

 infection. No doubt all but the worst cases are destroyed as unfit for 

 human food ; but many cases are so slight that they might be overlooked, 

 and there is an opinion widespread among veterinary surgeons that 

 tubercle is not transmitted from a diseased animal to an animal 

 eating its flesh. This opinion is so general that it appears in an 

 " Advanced Agriculture " published a few weeks ago, and it is natural 

 that " vets." should have ready listeners among butchers and 

 farmers. We welcome, then, the appointment of a commission that 

 should give a final judgment upon which legislation, if necessary, 

 may be based. In the meantime, despite the protests of the vegetarians, 

 those who confine their attentions to meat that has been well roasted, 

 boiled, grilled, or stewed, may remain complacent devourers of 

 animal proteid. 



Strange Food. 

 One of the essays in Mr. Cornish's recently published volume, 

 " Life at the Zoo," contains a number of amusing quotations from the 

 author of the " Englishman in Paris." In the days of the siege the 

 Parisians had the opportunity of making a number of experiments on 

 the qualities of animals not usually eaten. Besides such smaller 



