MICROBIC CHANGES IN MILK. 593 



Sfi'rili.safioit. — Sterilisation necessitates the use of special apparatus 

 in which the milk is heated in a water or steam bath sheltered from 

 the action of the air, the temperature rising to 212° to 240° Fahr. 

 (100° to 115° C.) ; all the ferments are destroyed, and the milk will 

 keep indefinitely, but its composition is slightly modified. 



Diseases Transmissible to Man through the Medium of Milk. — 

 Tuberculosis. — The history of tuberculosis contains numerous facts 

 proving the possibility of contagion by milk from cow^s suffering from 

 tuberculous mammitis, though it seems necessary that the milk 

 should be taken for a certain time to produce these effects. 



Foot-and-MoutJi Disease. — Observations recorded by veterinary 

 surgeons prove that this disease affects the teats. It may be trans- 

 mitted to man. The milker may be directly inoculated, but the milk 

 is the ordinary vehicle of contagion. Chauveau saw an epidemic in 

 a school at Lyons where milk was obtained from cows suffering from 

 foot-and-mouth disease. In a similar way 205 persons were inocu- 

 lated at Dover in 1884, and suffered from vesicles about the mouth. 



Although foot-and-mouth disease is extremely benign in men, it 

 is well to take every precaution against it. 



G astro-Intestinal Infections. — Cases have been recorded of gastro- 

 intestinal infection in young animals and children in consequence of 

 consuming milk w^hich had undergone abnormal changes. Milk con- 

 taining various kinds of micro-organisms may at first produce lactic 

 indiojestion and afterwards diarrhoeic enteritis. 



D.c. Q Q 



