251 



bacilli for one to two months, during the fever and con- 

 valescing period and for some time afterwards. 



Typhoid bacilli will grow and multiply very readily in milk 

 when the temperature is between 80 and 100 degrees F. 

 According to Framkel and others,* typhoid bacilli may live, 

 and in some instances grow, in butter-milk having an acid 

 reaction. According to Russell, t milk may become infected 

 with typhoid germs in the following ways : 



" 1. Infection by the milker who has been near a person 

 sick with the fever, and whose clothes have become infected. 



" 2. Infection of the milk by allowing it to stand in a room 

 that was next to that occupied by a typhoid patient. 



"3. Direct infection of milk vessels by infected water used 

 for cleansing purposes." 



Diphtheria is another disease that is sometimes transmit- 

 ted by means of infected milk. Ernest Hart, of England, 

 collected statistics of seven epidemics of diphtheria, with 500 

 cases ; and Dr. Freeman, of New York, obtained records of 

 eleven epidemics, with 501 cases : all of these eighteen epi- 

 demics were transmitted by means of infected milk. Klein 

 claims that he found diphtheria bacilli in the milk of two 

 inoculated cows. Abbott failed to find the germ in a similar 

 experiment. The actual infection of cows with diphtheria 

 bacilli may not be fully determined, but the clinical records 

 of diphtheria epidemics show conclusively that milk can be 

 the carrier of the germ. Sternberg says: "Milk is a favora- 

 ble medium for the growth of this bacillus, and, as it grows 

 at a comparatively low temperature (58 degrees F.), it is 

 evident that this fluid may become a medium for conveying 

 the bacillus from an infected source to the throats of pre- 

 viously healthy children." t 



Abbott says that the bacillus of diptheria is destroyed by 

 'heating, for ten minutes, at 58 degrees C. or 136.4 degrees F. 

 Hence pasteurizing or sterilizmg will readily destroy them. 

 But the best plan is for the inspector to see that there is no 



* Central Bl'tt. fur Bac, Band XXIII, No. 17, p. 752. 

 t Russell's Dairy Bacteriology, p. 97. 

 J Manual of Bacteriology, p. 362. 



