Relation of Disease- Bacteria to Milk. 99 



found, however, that it could live in raw milk from one to 

 four days, depending upon the amount of acid present. In 

 boiled or sterilized milk it grows more freely, as the acid- 

 producing forms are thereby eliminated. In butter it dies 

 out in a few days (4 to 5). 



On account of the above relation not a large number of 

 cholera outbreaks have been traced to milk, but Simpson * 

 records a very striking case in India where a number of 

 sailors, upon reaching port, secured a quantity of milk. Of 

 the crew which consumed this, every one was taken ill, and 

 four out of ten died, while those who did not partake es- 

 caped without any disease. It was later shown that the 

 milk was adulterated with water taken from an open pool 

 in a cholera infected district. 



Diphtheria. According to Klein 2 the diphtheria organ- 

 ism is capable of developing in animals, attacking among 

 other organs the udder, and so infecting the milk; but 

 Abbott 8 or Vladimirow 4 failed to confirm these experi- 

 ments. There is abundant evidence that the diphtheria 

 organism is able to grow luxuriantly in milk, even more 

 so in raw than in sterilized. 5 



Infection in this disease is more frequently attributable 

 to direct infection from patient, or indirectly through 

 attendant. 



Scarlet fever. Although it is more difficult to study the 

 relation of this disease to contaminated milk supplies, be- 

 cause the causal germ of scarlet fever is not yet known, 

 yet the origin of a .consider able number of epidemics has 



1 Simpson, London Practitioner, 1887, 39:144. 



Klein, 19 Loc. Gov't. Bd. (Gt. Brit.) 1889, 167. 



Abbott, Vet. Mag. 1: 17. 



* Vladimirow, Arch. Sci. biol. Inst. Med., St. Petersburg, 1892, p. 84. 



*Schottelius and Ellerhorst, Milch Zeit., 1897, pp. 40 and 73. 



