DISEASES COMMUNICABLE IN MILK 57 



garine in six European cities and in nine of the samples from two different 

 cities tubercle bacilli were found. 



Viability of B. Tuberculosis in Cheese. Whether or not cheese contains 

 tubercle bacilli depends on the time that elapses in the ripening process. 

 In Switzerland it was demonstrated that in Emmenthal cheese the tuber- 

 cle bacilli died between the thirty-third and fortieth day of ripening and 

 as the process is continued considerably longer before the cheese is mar- 

 keted there is little cause to be apprehensive that the bacilli survive. The 

 bacilli of tuberculosis live much longer in cheese made by the cheddar 

 process. In Switzerland it was found that during ripening they lived 

 104, but not 111 days. In Maryland, Mohler and Doane, in this variety 

 of cheese, demonstrated tuberculosis germs after 122 days, a period that 

 approaches the limit of that it is sometimes allowed to ripen. Altogether 

 it seems unlikely that cheese often carries the germs of tuberculosis. 

 Of course cottage cheese and any other that is eaten soon after it is made 

 is likely to be infected with the bacilli if it comes from the milk of tuber- 

 cular cows. 



Need of a Comprehensive Tuberculosis Policy. It is apparent that 

 the problem of bovine tuberculosis is very urgent. 



Foot-and-mouth Disease. This highly contagious disease chiefly 

 affects ruminants and swine. It gets its name from the fact that it is 

 characterized by vesicular eruptions on the mucous membrane of the 

 mouth and on the skin between the toes of the affected animal. The 

 causative organism has never been isolated but it is held to be a filterable 

 virus. Aphthous fever, as the malady is sometimes called, is common in 

 Europe but has never gained permanent foothold in this country because 

 whenever it has appeared, the affected herds have been promptly de- 

 stroyed by slaughter. The disease is communicable to man, children 

 being more susceptible to it than adults. It is spread by contact, through 

 the vesicles, nasal discharges, saliva, feces and milk. Most often it is 

 acquired from ingesting infected milk or its products, but it may be also, 

 through abrasions in the skin, in handling or slaughtering the sick ani- 

 mals. The incubation period is generally 3 or 4 days and the progress of 

 the disease has been described as causing fever, vomiting, sometimes pain- 

 ful swallowing, heat and dryness of the mouth, followed by an eruption of 

 vesicles on the mucous membrane of the mouth and rarely on the fingers. 

 The vesicles are about the size of a pea, soon rupture and heal slowly. 

 Patients usually recover; the few deaths are mostly among children. 

 The disease is uncommon in the United States but a few cases were re- 

 ported in humans in the epizootics of 1870, 1902, 1908 and 1914. 



Anthrax. This disease is caused by Bact. anthracis. Man is rarely 

 infected through the alimentary tract but is sometimes. That he might 

 be, seems to have been known for a long time for in 1599 during an anthrax 

 epidemic in Venice the sale of meats, milk, butter and fresh cheese was 



