136 BACTERIA IN DAILY LIFE 



tuberculosis. In Paris we have been told that, 

 of every thirteen samples of milk sold, one was 

 infected with tubercle bacilli, whilst in Washington 

 one in every nineteen samples of milk was stated 

 to be similarly tainted. 



The existence of tubercular disease in cows, 

 and its transmission to other animals fed with 

 their milk, has been brought out in a striking 

 manner in investigations published by the Massa- 

 chusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. 

 In one case as many as over 33 per cent, of the 

 calves fed with milk from tuberculous cows 

 succumbed to the same disease. According to 

 Hirschberger, 10 per cent, of the cows living in 

 the neighbourhood of towns where the conditions 

 of their environment are not generally the most 

 satisfactory or conducive to health suffer from 

 tuberculosis, and 50 per cent, of these animals 

 yield milk containing tubercle bacilli. 



The demand which is being made by municipal 

 authorities to be invested with the power of in- 

 specting the country farms from whence their 

 cities are supplied with milk and other argricul- 

 tural produce could not have received stronger 

 support than was recently supplied by a case tried 

 in Edinburgh, and as this is only a sample of 

 what _ is doubtless a daily, although undetected 

 occurrence in many municipalities, it will not be 



