396 Bulletin 165. 



without, rather than withiu the udder as suggested by the 

 "garget theory." Von Freudenreich isolated a gas producing 

 bacillus* from the udder of a cow which was suffering from 

 mammitis. In addition to establishing its etiological relation to 

 the diseased condition of the gland, Guillebeau, who studied the 

 organism isolated by von Freudenreich, found the bacillus to 

 produce viscosity in milk. As this organism has not been 

 reported by others as causing ropiness in milk and as it is asso- 

 ciated with mammitis, in which case the milk is of no commercial 

 value, it is of little significance when considered as a cause of 

 ropy milk. 



Adametzf has shown that Bacillus laciis viscosus possesses a 

 slimy viscid capsule which envelops each organism and by reason 

 of this is enabled to bring about a corresponding condition in 

 milk when the individuals are present in sufficient numbers. In 

 the year following the discovery of this bacillus in brook water, 

 Adametz again isolated it from a sample of milk obtained from a 

 dairy in which trouble from ropy milk was experienced inter- 

 mittently. Although not verified by bacteriologic examination, 

 the indirect cause of each separate outbreak was believed to be 

 the occasional use of water from a certain well. It was observed 

 that trouble was experienced upon each occasion when because 

 of drought it became necessary to use the water of this well, and 

 immunity from trouble was attained by avoiding the use of the 

 water in question. 



Mention of this bacillus described by Adametz is to be found 

 in several works upon bacteriology. In each reference a 

 statement is made to the effect that the viscid change caused by 

 Bacillus lactis viscosus takes place so slowly at room temperature 

 that it can not be the cause of ropiness under ordinary conditions 

 and that Adametz' s painstaking investigations are only of a 



* LandwirthschaftUches Jahrbuch der Schweiz, 1890, p. 41. 



f Landw'irthschaftliche Jahrbiicher, 1891, p. 185. Earlier and less com- 

 plete reference to this organism are to be found in the Milch Zeitung, 1889, 

 No. 48, p. 941, abstracted in Centbl. fiir Bakt. und Par. Bd. VII, 1890, p. 

 767. Also in the Oesterreichische Monatsschrift fiir Thierheilkiinde und 

 Thierzucht, Jahrg XV. 1890. No. 2, p. I, abstracted in Centbl. fiir Bakt. und 

 Par. Bd. VIII. 1890, p. 109. 



