100 Tuberculosis. 



It is to be expected that all market milk, no matter of what 

 origin, may occasionally be infected with tubercle bacilli ; all milk 

 in the production of which no special care is taken in the selection of 

 the milking animals and no clinical examination or tuberculinization 

 of the animals has been undertaken, should be suspected of contain- 

 ing tubercle bacilli, and the larger the herd which produces the 

 milk, the greater the danger. 



German investigators established the following figures for the 

 presence of tubercle bacilli in market milk : 



Author. Samples. Place. Tubercular %. 



Obermuller 13 Berlin 61 



Buege 6 Halle 33 . 3 



Petri 64 Berlin 14 



Beck 56 Berlin 30.3 



Proskauer 9 Market milk Berlin 55.5 



Seeligmann 5 Dairies under veterinary control . . 0. 



Croner 13 Danish milk .' 38.5 



Eber 210 Leipzig 10.5 



[The percentage of tubercle bacilli found in the milk supply 

 of large cities in this country has been accurately determined in 

 only a few instances. In 1907 Anderson proved that in Washing- 

 ton, D. C., 10.7% of the dairies supplied milk containing virulent 

 tubercle bacilli, Schroeder found 7.7% of the 26 dairies examined 

 were distributing infected milk to Washington, D. C., while still 

 later Mohler showed that about 3% of the 73 samples of milk ex- 

 amined contained tubercle bacilli. The apparent discrepancy in 

 these results may be readily explained by the fact that during the 

 last 6 years strenuous efforts have been carried on by the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry to eradicate tuberculosis from among these herds, 

 with the result that in the District of Columbia the number of 

 tuberculous animals has been reduced from 18.8% to 1.2% in 

 1914. Hess has found that 17, or 16%, of 107 samples of milk dis- 

 tributed in New York City contained virulent tubercle bacilli, 

 while Campbell made extensive investigations of the occurrence 

 of tubercle bacilli in the market milk of Philadelphia, and found 

 18 or 13 . 8% of the 130 samples examined to contain living bacilli of 

 tuberculosis. Trans.] 



Under What Conditions Do Tubercle Bacilli 

 Enter the Milk? 



The infection with tubercle bacilli is natural when the animal 

 is affected with tuberculosis of the udder, or may occur indirectly 

 when through contamination of the udder with feces in pulmonary 

 or intestinal tuberculosis, urine or vaginal secretion in kidney or 

 uterine tuberculosis, or with infected straw, tubercle bacilli are 

 brushed off from the soiled udder into the drawn milk, or when in 



