DAIRY MEETING. 189 



rooms. They do not naturally belong there, as do the lactic acid 

 group, and so can be removed by suitable cleansing of these 

 places. They may also enter the milk through the water, used 

 to clean the utensils. This of necessity implies a polluted water 

 supply, and so the way to eliminate this source of trouble is botK 

 plain and easy. 



Aside from the above two classes of bacteria, which are of 

 economic significance only, disease bacteria can enter the milk 

 in the stable or milking room attached to the manure flakes that 

 may fall into the milk. This may be in the form of dust, kicked 

 up in the stable, or in the form of the larger particles of this 

 substance that fall from the dirty flanks and udder of the cow 

 during the manipulations of milking. A strainer in the mouth 

 of the milk pail will remove the solid dirt, but it will not remove 

 the greater part of the bacteria, which are so small as to pass 

 through cloth. With absorbent cotton the greater part of them 

 can be removed, but we cannot depend on any method of me- 

 chanical straining to remove all of them. A clean and dustless 

 tieup, together with a clean cow, whose udder has been wiped 

 ofif with a moist cloth, and a covered pail, will reduce their 

 number to a minimum. 



The intestinal bacteria that thus enter a milk are of consid- 

 erable significance from a health standpoint. A cow with 

 tuberculosis, whether of the lungs or intestines, eliminates the 

 bacilli mainly in the feces, so that the dried manure flakes from 

 such a cow will carry the germs of this disease, and transmit 

 it to the milk into which it falls, to later cause trouble for the 

 consumer, especially if he be young or in poor health. 



In addition the streptococci and bacteria of the colon group, 

 which are -always present in feces, will not only cause souring 

 of the milk if they enter it. but they are also able to set up in- 

 testinal disturbances among the users of the milk. ]Much of 

 our terrible infant mortality is due to the diarrheas caused by 

 these organisms among the children using the raw milk. This 

 is well shown by the great difference in the mortality of children 

 fed on pasteurized milk or mother's milk as compared with those 

 fed on raw milk. So well is this recognized that many cities 

 now maintain milk depots where pasteurized milk is dispensed 

 for infant consumption. One notable historic proof of this 

 condition was aft'orded at the siege of Paris in 1879. During 



