3i6 



T]ie Country Gentleman s Magazine 



unaccountable change, and this at first was 

 attributed to want of cleanUness, which in- 

 deed is sometimes the cause j but experi- 

 ments and facts proved that besides cleanU- 

 ness (which is most imperative in dealing 

 with milk at every stage) there were other 

 causes at work, and one of these was the pre- 

 sence of fungi in the milk. Mr Willard quotes 

 from Professor Caldwell as follows : — "It is 

 one of the most commonly observed facts of 

 nature that milk is especially susceptible to 

 the influence of emanations from putrid 

 matter. The germs of fungi that are con- 

 tinually thrown off from foul or putrifying 

 matter find in the milk a place where they 

 can go on and multiply; and so insidious 

 are these influences, so readily can these minute 

 germs make their way anywhere and every- 

 where, that if the air containing them in un- 

 usual quantity is inhaled by the cows, the milk 

 will be infected before it leaves the cow's bag. 



The last sentence, which I have put in 

 italics, should be indelibly fixed on the 

 memory of the reader, as well as the follow- 

 ing : " From the moment the milk leaves the 

 cow the work of the fungi commences ; they 

 begin to increase and simultaneously the milk 

 begins to change, both operations going on 

 with a rapidity that varies according to the 

 circumstances of temperature and exposure." 

 As a specimen of the rapidity with which 

 fungi can increase and multiply — and, of 

 course, injuriously affect the milk — we are 

 told that one spore of the '•'■ Penicillium crus- 

 taceum will; in the course of an hour, at a 

 moderately elevated temperature, produce 50 

 to 100 Micrococcus cells; each one of these 

 cells will sub-divide into two in another hour, 

 and so on. At this rate of increase we 

 should have, at a low estimate of 40 cells to 

 one spore, to start with, 400,000,000 Micro- 

 coccus cells from this one spore in twenty- 

 four hours." After this, need any one wonder 

 that milk thus affected should make bad 

 cheese or bad butter ? The fact of the 

 presence of fungi in milk is made indis- 

 putable by numerous well-authenticated cases. 

 In one instance the fungi were introduced 

 from minute particles of mud which had got 

 upon the cow's udder when it had crossed a 



mud pond. And how often, in a hot day, do 

 we see cows when being driven up for milk- 

 ing, plunged into mud ponds or foul 

 ditches? Another instance given is where 

 the cows inhaled the foul odours pro- 

 ceeding from a dead animal. The fol- 

 lowing case I quote at length and commend to 

 the careful reading and thoughtful considera- 

 tion of all interested :—" Another case in 

 pointoccurred during the past summer — 1871. 

 Professor Law, of Cornell University, gets 

 his supply of milk from a ' milkman,' One 

 day, during the hot weather, he observed a 

 peculiar ropey appearance in the cream which 

 had arisen from the milk. He examined it 

 under a powerful microscope, and found if 

 filed with living organisms of a character quite 

 foreign to good jnilk. He immediately called 

 upon his milkman, to inquire concerning his 

 management of stock and general treatment 

 of milk, with a view of accounting for the 

 trouble. There was no fault discovered at 

 the dairy-house, in the milking, or in the 

 treatment of the milk ; but on looking 

 through the pastures he found that the cows, 

 for lack of clean running water, were com- 

 pelled to slake their thirst for the most part 

 from a stagnant pool. This water he examined 

 under the microscope, and discovered the 

 same class of organisms as those in the cream^ 

 He then took some of the blood from the 

 cows, and examined under the glass, when 

 the same organisjns made their appearafice. 

 He next obtained a specimen of good milk 

 — milk which, on examination, was free from 

 impurities, and into this he put a drop of 

 water from the stagnant pool. In a short 

 space of time the milk developed an infinite 

 number of these organisms, and became similar 

 in character to the milk obtained from his. 

 milkman." 



I will not quote more instances, but merely 

 add a case which came under my own 

 observation. It was at a farm-house where 

 the place of the window in the dairy was of 

 open lattice work (as is often the case for 

 ventilation and coolness), and outside this 

 lattice opening was a foul rubbish heap. 

 While that remained, bad cheese was made;, 

 after it was removed, the cheese produced 



