58 CITY MILK SUPPLY 



prohibited under penalty of dqath. The bacterium has been recovered 

 from the milk of cows suffering from the disease but there seems to be only 

 very slight danger of men taking the disease from milk, for the flow is sup- 

 pressed or if delivered is altered in character and also the cow dies a few 

 hours after the beginning of the attack. Ernst states that the dangers 

 of infection through the ingestion of raw milk containing the bacteria is 

 slight because anthrax bacteria are digested by the gastric juice but that 

 it does not destroy the spores. Consequently infection of the milk by 

 spores from the manure of diseased animals or of healthy ones that have 

 eaten food containing anthrax spores, and also by spores derived from 

 dust and straw offers possibilities of dangers. That infections from milk 

 do occur is known. Kober cites the case of the daughter of a plantation 

 owner at Barbados in 1795, who one morning drank most of the milk of a 

 cow suffering from anthrax and who 4 days later showed symptoms of the 

 disease which were followed by the development of a carbuncle on her 

 right arm. Ernst instances the case of a typhoid fever patient who after 

 drinking 1.5 liters of milk from a cow with malignant pustule of the udder, 

 became infected with intestinal anthrax. 



In a dairy district supplying Chicago, from June to August, 1910, an 

 outbreak of anthrax occurred, which threatened the milk supply of the 

 city. The epidemic lasted about 60 days. Twenty farms were involved 

 and 500 cows exposed of which number 87 died of the disease. The out- 

 break spread rapidly and required vigorous efforts to check it. Inspect- 

 ors from Chicago were put in the district and quarantined every farm on 

 which the disease was actually present or was suspected of harboring it. 

 All milk on these farms was destroyed. This vigorous campaign kept 

 the milk out of Chicago. In the course of the epidemic one farmer died 

 of anthrax but apparently did not contract the disease from milk. 



Cowpox. This disease is believed to be smallpox modified by passage 

 through the cow. It is well known that milkers and others, who are 

 brought into close contact with cows having the disease, break out with 

 it. Indeed, it was observation of this fact and that milkers who had 

 contracted it seldom had smallpox that led Jenner to propose vaccination. 

 It is within the bounds of possibility that infants and others might get 

 cowpox from drinking milk containing pustular matter abraded from the 

 udder in milking but it is not known that any ever did. However, boards 

 of health properly exclude from the market, the milk of cows suffering 

 with cowpox. 



Rabies. That anyone should milk a rabid animal is most improbable 

 but as it has been reported that the disease has been transmitted to the 

 young in the milk, calves of diseased animals should be prevented from 

 sucking. 



Ernst cites a case reported by Bardach of a nursing infant remaining 



