DAIRY MEETING. I9I 



in these dishes. In the milk they will multiply rapidly, and 

 cause disease among the users of the milk. There are a num- 

 ber of such cases on record. The use of a pure water supply 

 will do away with all trouble from this source. 



In the distributing depot there also enters the possibility of 

 infection of a milk supply by the use of an infected bottle, 

 which has been returned from a house where there is a case of 

 infectious disease, and which has not been sterilized before be- 

 ing used again. Here also the receipt of a single can of infected 

 milk from a single small producer can produce infection of the 

 entiie supply with which it is mixed. It should be an axiom 

 that all bottles sent out from a milk depot should be steriHzed 

 with live steam before being filled. This would not be an ex- 

 pensive matter for the large distributor, any more than it 

 would be for the Creamery. 



Up to this time we have considered the possibilities of bacte- 

 rial contamination of the milk by agencies other than man, and 

 we have seen that tubercle bacilli may be transmitted from the 

 cow to the milk, both in the udder, and by manure flakes falling 

 into the milk. We have also seen that eruptive diseases ot' 

 the udder may be caused by the organisms causing diphtheria, 

 scarlet fever, summer complaint, and others ; and that these 

 bacteria may fall into the milk to later make trouble for the 

 users. We have also seen that the souring bacteria enter the 

 milk with this same dirt. Tubercular infection of milk is due 

 almost entirely either to infection within the udder or to in- 

 fection by the bacteria in fecal discharges from the tubercular 

 cow. Those who handle milk play but little part in the infec- 

 tion of the milk with this disease. The same is also true of 

 the organisms causing summer complaint. There are records 

 of outbreaks of diphtheria, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever in 

 which the cow infected the milk, but they are few as compared 

 with the many cases where the milk received its infection from 

 the human being who either did the milking, or handled the milk 

 at some point between the cow and the consumer. 



To understand how milk is infected by the human factor we 

 need to understand a few facts about how these germ-caused 

 diseases are transmitted. They are mainly infectious, although 

 also contagious. The organisms enter mainly through the nose 

 and mouth. The diphtheria organism and probably also the 



