SLIMY MILK BACTERIA. 83 



infections, since most of them produce the effect very slowly 

 and are not vigorous enough to render milk slimy .when they 

 have to contend with the ordinary lactic bacteria. 



Slimy milk appears to be produced in dairies by one or two 

 widely distributed bacteria. The most common one seems 

 to be a short rod (Fig. 17) which does not produce spores 

 and is, therefore, readily killed by heat. This 

 bacterium has been found a common cause FIG. .17. 

 of this trouble in the United States (77, 73). f |> 

 Further, it so closely resembles a slimy milk $$&& 

 bacterium described in Europe by Adametz that V| ^ 

 it is probably to be regarded as the same, and ^A*%*t 

 is consequently known by the name given it >** 



by Adametz, B. lactis viscosus. It happens to 



, J . B. lactis 



be a very vigorous organism and, when once vl - SCOS us ; the 

 present in milk, will grow -so rapidly as to common cause 



of slimy milk. 



make it slimy in spite of the action of the (Ward.*) 

 ordinary lactic bacteria .which are present. 



The source from which this troublesome* organism is 

 derived has been, at least in part, determined. The bacillus 

 is an inhabitant of water, and the origin of the trouble may 

 be originally some water supply infected with the bacillus. 

 Its continuance in the dairy has been in one case certainly 

 traced to the dairy water supply. It has been found living 

 and growing in the water used for .washing the milk vessels, 

 or for submerging them to cool the milk ; and through such 

 a source of contamination the bacillus gets into the milk. 

 The trouble is found to disappear if the milk vessels are once 

 thoroughly sterilized by live steam and then placed in fresh, 

 pure water. Disinfecting the water with permanganate of pot- 

 ash has also been found sufficient to allay the trouble. These 

 facts teach that upon the occasion of such an infection the 

 water supply and the .water tanks must be the first place of 

 suspicion. The bacilli are not common enough in nature to be 

 a very frequent source of trouble, and if the dairy is infested 



