72 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



meat being used under certain restrictions, if not wholly condemned. 

 Owing to the extensive spread of the disease among Danish cattle, all 

 skim milk returned to the farm must be heated to a temperature that 

 will surely destroy' the tubercle bacilli. Since the introduction of this 

 regulation, the ])ercentage of the disease in calves has fallen from 15.5 

 per cent in 1895 to 10.6 per cent in the years 1S9G to 1898." In other 

 words, the disease has been decreased by about one-third; which is 

 further evidence that tuberculosis in cattle can be restricted, because 

 it actually has been restricted by lessening the use of infected milk of 

 tuberculous cows. 



"The results of Bang's tests were recently presented to the Congress 

 for the Study of Tuberculosis (Paris, 1898). In the case of twenty-three 

 herds there rei)orted, none were so successfully controlled as in the 

 instance here detailed. In every herd in which he tried this method, a 

 varying number of animals were found that reacted positively to sub 

 sequent tests. These partial failures, amounting in all cases to about 

 twelve per cent, he attributes to carelessness in maintaining complete 

 separation of reacting from healthy herds."'* 



In a recent number of the London Lancet is a summary statement of 

 evidence of the infectiousness of tuberculous milk, which is so con- 

 densed that I use a portion of it here. 



''Numerous bacteriological examinations of milk during the last ten 

 years have proved the presence of tubercle bacilli in a greater or less 

 percentage; for example, in Berlin milk by Obermiillerf to the extent of 

 Gl per cent, and by Petri, $ also in Berlin milk, only of 11 per cent — 

 using the method of inoculation of animals as the test. Also Rabino- 

 witsch and Kemi)ner§ found that 28 per cent of 25 samples of Berlin 

 milk contained tubercle bacilli. 



''In the medical officer of health's report^ to the Liverpool Health 

 Committee on the question of tubercle bacilli in the milk supply of 

 Liverpool 2.8 per cent of the 144 samples collected from sources within 

 the city were proved to be infective by experiments of Professor Sims 

 Woodhead, Professor Boyce, and Professor t)el(^i)ine, while 29.1 j^er 

 cent of 24 samples taken on arrival from parts of Cheshire, Shropshire, 

 etc., at the railway stations were found to be tuberculous. Similarly 

 Professor Del(?pine|| reports of the milk supplies of Liverpool, Man- 

 chester, and other parts, 5.55 per cent of 54 samples collected from 

 town dairies, and IT.G per cent of 125 samples of milk from country 

 farms collected at the railway stations pi-oved to be tuberculous. 

 Again, milk collected from 16 Cambridgeshire dairies, a sample from 

 each, was reported by Kanthack and Sladen** to have produced tubercu- 

 losis in guinea-])igs on inoculation to the extent of 56.3 per cent of the 

 milk (nine samples). 



''Professor Boyce * * * has carried on numerous experiments 

 during the last two years for the health committee of the corj^oration of 

 Liverpool. During the year 1898, 84 samples of 'town' milk, of which 



* The Tfistnri/ of a Tuhrrculoiis Had of Cows, University of Wisconsin, Agricultural Kxperi- 

 ment Station. I'.ullctln No. 78, pp. 9-10. 15. 

 t Hygienische Kund.schau. 1S95. No. 19. 



t Arboitcn aus dem Kalsorliclien Gesundlieitsamte. 1898, Vol xiv. 

 § Rabinovvitsch and Kempner : Zpitschrift fiir Hvgipne, 1899, p. 137. 

 11 Report and Brit. IMed. .Jour., 1897. Vol. ii, p. 1G2. 

 II Rrit. Med. .Tour., 1898. Vol. ii, p. 917. 

 ** The Lancet, Jan. 14th, 1899, p. 74. 



