CHAPTER XXIX. 



ROPINESS IN MILK, WINE, BEER, AND OTHER LIQUIDS. 



162. Ropy or Viscous Milk. 



THE first attempt at a scientific study of this malady was made in 

 1847 by GIRARDIN (I.), who hoped to elucidate it by chemical 

 analysis, and sought the cause in the defective composition of the 

 fodder. This complaint may develop to a variable extent in milk. 

 In the worst cases the thickened liquid can be drawn out to a thin 

 thread a yard or so in length. J. LISTER (I.), in 1873, was the 

 first to reproduce this complaint by inoculation, and thus indicated 

 the probability of a living source of infection. To ascertain this by 

 microscopic examination was the task essayed by SCHMIDT-MUHL- 

 HEIM (I.) in 1882, who found that ropy sour milk contained an 

 unusually large number of cocci i p in diameter, frequently united 

 as chains, but also in many cases isolated, and in the latter case 

 apparently endowed with motile powers. Although at that time 

 suitable methods of pure culture were no longer lacking, this 

 observer made no attempt to utilise them in his researches. This 

 omission was, however, soon remedied by E. DUCLAUX (IX.), who 

 prepared pure cultures of two species of bacteria from ropy milk, 

 both of which belong, morphologically, to the so-called capsule 

 bacilli. The powerful lustre of the greatly swollen mucinous 

 envelopes surrounding these cells is the first thing to strike the 

 assisted eye, on which account the generic name, Actinobader 

 (lustrous bacterium, star bacterium), was applied to both organisms, 

 tinder their influence the milk yields alcohol and acetic acid. 



To these two pests (known respectively as Actinobacter du lait 

 visqueux and A. polymorphus) a large number of others possessing 

 similar powers have been added by different observers ; e.g. a 

 micrococcus discovered by HUEPPE (IV.) in 1884; the Bacillus 

 mesentericus vulgatus, investigated by FLUGGE (I.) ; and the Bacillus 

 pituitosi, a thick, slightly curved rod, discovered by LOEPFLER (III.). 

 Other allied species are : a streptococcus, described by HESS and 

 BORGEAUD (I.), and presumably identical with that observed by 

 NOCARD and MOLLEREAU (I.) ; and a bacillus, 1.2 ju broad and 2 p 

 long, obtained by Schiitz from ropy milk, and described by ST. VON 

 RATZ (I.). In 1890, L. ADAMETZ (IV.) found in the Liesing 

 brook (which runs into the Danube in the south of Vienna) a 

 capsule bacillus, 0.7-1.2 p long and 0.7 //. broad, which he named 

 Bacillus lactis viscosus, and which is capable of turning both milk 



279 



