ORIGIN OF DISEASE AND THE GERM THEORY. 135 



and if to these we add scarlet fever we have a list of four. Now, 

 tuberculosis is very widely prevalent among cattle, and also it 

 occurs in fowls, and it is not improbable that this disease may be 

 transmitted from infected oxen to human beings by the medium 

 of the milk and by that of the flesh. Vendors of milk, there- 

 fore, ought to be prevented by severe repressive legislation from 

 selling the milk of diseased cows. Indeed, it is quite as neces- 

 sary that this precaution should be effectually carried out, as 

 it is that the prohibition of the sale of flesh for human food 

 that is unfit for that purpose should be duly enforced. Of late 



i»*e 



Fig. 14. — From a Preparation of Human Tuberculous Sputum, stained after 

 the Ehrlich-Wrigert method. The rod-like bodies are the tubercle bacilli 

 (stained pink). — After Klein. 



years great improvements have been made in relation to such 

 questions as this which we are now considering, and the advances 

 which have been made in hygienic science have highly con- 

 duced to the public health ; but we must not forget that though 

 much has been done, nevertheless there still remains a great 

 deal more to be achieved in the future at the hands of the various 

 sanitary authorities. It is to be borne in mind in this connection 

 that milk especially is, unless due care be taken, from several 

 different causes, liable to be a source of danger and of death. 

 Not only the germs of scarlet fever, but also those of diph- 

 theria, those of typhoid fever, as well as probably those of 

 many other maladies, may, through the agency of milk, spread 

 desolation far and wide. These germs mav be conveyed to the 



