BACTERIA IN MILK 1035 



moderate numbers, and importance may be attached to such leu- 

 cocyte counts only when their number largely exceeds that present 

 in other specimens of perfectly normal milk. Whenever such high 

 leucocyte counts are found, of course, a careful veterinary inspection 

 and examination for pyogenic disease should be made. 



Foot-and-mouth disease, an infectious condition prevailing among 

 cattle, characterized by a vesicular rash on the mouth and about the 

 hoofs, has, in a number of cases, been definitely shown to be trans- 

 mitted to man through the agency of milk. Notter and Firth 32 

 reported an epidemic occurring among persons supplied with milk 

 from a single dairy in which foot-and-mouth disease prevailed among 

 the cows. In this epidemic, two hundred and five individuals were 

 affected with vesicular eruptions of the throat, with tonsillitis and 

 swellings of the cervical lymph nodes. Similar cases have been 

 reported by Pott. 33 



Although anthrax has never been definitely shown to have been 

 conveyed by milk, Boschetti 34 succeeded in isolating living anthrax 

 bacilli from a sample of milk two weeks after its withdrawal from 

 the cow. 



Milk and Tuberculosis. The question of the conveyance of tuber- 

 culosis by means oi milk is a subject which, because of its great 

 importance, has been extensively investigated by bacteriologists. A 

 large number of observers have succeeded in proving the presence 

 of tubercle bacilli in tho milk of tuberculous cows by intraperitoneal 

 inoculation of rabbits and guinea-pigs with samples of milk. Such 

 positive results have been obtained by Bang, 35 Hirschberger, 36 

 Ernst, 37 and many others. A number of these observers, notably 

 Ernst, have shown that tubercle bacilli may be present in the milk 

 without tuberculous disease of the udders. In an examination of 

 the milk supply of Washington, D. C., 38 6.72 per cent of the samples 

 contained tubercle bacilli. 



The path of entrance of the bacilli from the cow into the milk 



32 Notter and Firth, quoted from Harrington, ' ' Theory and Practice of 

 Hygiene. ' ' 



33 Pott, Munch, med. Woch., 1899. 

 34 Hox<>lictti, fliorn. mod. vet., 1891. 



M #.///, Dent. /fit. f. Tierchem., xi, 1884. 

 "Hirwlibrruc); Deut. Arch. f. klin. Med., xliv, 1889. 



37 Ernst, H. C., Amer. Jour. Med. Sei., xcviii, 1890. 



38 Anderson, Bull. No. 41, U. S. Pub. Health and Mar. Hosp. Serv., Wash., 1908. 



