Goats' Milk. 209 



sumed in the same way as cows' milk. Thus a goat may 

 feed on such strong-tasting articles as turnips, laurel, ivy, 

 and such like without imparting a corresponding flavour 

 to the milk. 



Unwholesome MitKf 



At times the milk that comes from a goat will be 

 found tinged with red, especially towards the stoppings. 

 When such milk is allowed to stand for a short time and 

 is then poured off, there is a distinct sediment of matter 

 and blood. This condition may be owing to a chronic 

 and localised inflammatory action going on in some part of 

 the udder, which has resulted in suppuration, and the dis- 

 charge of matter and other inflammatory products into 

 one of the milk-ducts instead of the udder. Although 

 cases of this kind are sometimes sufficiently serious to 

 require veterinary aid, I have frequently had instances 

 when the milk has assumed its normal condition in the 

 course of a few days without any treatment beyond giving 

 a dose of Epsom salts to the goat each morning. 



Goats' milk, like other milk, may be poisoned by the 

 animal eating some poisonous plant without being itself 

 affected. Although this is very rare, and has never hap- 

 pened in my experience, cases were recorded in the British 

 Medical Journal some years ago as having occurred in 

 Rome. The goats in question had been pasturing in the 

 neighbourhood of Borgo Rione, where four poisonous 

 herbs were found on investigation to abound, viz., Conium 

 maculatum, Clematis Vitalba, Colchicum autumnale, and 

 Plumbago europcza. The persons who had partaken of 

 the milk from these goats suffered from a kind of cholera, 

 and although recovery took place in each case, the patients 

 were seriously ill for several days, the severity of the 

 symptoms being in direct relation to the quantity of milk 

 taken. The goats themselves, strange to relate, remained 



p 



