204 BACTERIA 



Professor MacFadyen ' has given a full account of the 

 ways in which milk becomes pathogenic, and his views have 

 received further support from Professor Sheridan Delepine, 

 who has examined more than one hundred samples of milk 

 from Liverpool and Manchester. The result of this invest- 

 igation has been that milk must be held to be one of the 

 most potent causes of the summer diarrhoea of children. 

 Indeed, a bacillus has been isolated identical with one which 

 was apparently the cause of this complaint, which carries off 

 such a large number of infants every summer. It resembles 

 closely the Bacillus coli communis, which is an almost con- 

 stant inhabitant of the alimentary canal, and is held by 

 many bacteriologists to play, especially in conjunction with 

 yeasts and other saprophytic organisms, an active role in the 

 intestine of man. 



In a recent official report 2 Dr. Hope, of Liverpool, states 

 that " the method of feeding plays a most important 

 part in the causation of diarrhoea; when artificial feeding 

 becomes necessary, the most scrupulous attention should be 

 paid to feeding-bottles." Careless feeding, in conjunction 

 with a warm, dry summer, invariably results in a high death- 

 rate from this cause. These two causes interact upon each 

 other. A warm temperature is a favourable temperature for 

 the growth of the poisonous micro-organism ; a dry season 

 affords ample opportunity for its conveyance through the 

 air. Unclean feeding-bottles are obviously an admirable 

 nidus for these injurious bacteria, for in such a resting-place 

 the three main conditions necessary for bacterial life are well 

 fulfilled, viz., heat, moisture, and pabulum. The heat is 

 supplied by the warm temperature, the moisture and food 

 by the dregs of milk left in the bottle; and the dry air 

 assists in transit. 



1 Journal of Comparative Pathology, vol. x. (1897), pp. 150-189. 



2 E. W. Hope, M.D., D.Sc., Report of the Health of Liverpool during 1897, 

 p. 40. 



