IO6 PRACTICAL DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY 



termine whether tuberculous cattle are present among the herds 

 furnishing milk to the public, or to guarantee the consumer 

 against contagion from typhoid or diphtheria from all the 

 sources above mentioned. The sources of infection from 

 typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever or tuberculosis are 

 varied and so rare that dairy inspection will give little protec- 

 tion against them. A rigid dairy inspection, it is true, forces 

 the dairyman to be more careful in the handling of his milk 

 and more cleanly in his general methods; but this will not 

 guarantee that the tuberculosis bacillus is not constantly finding 

 its way into the milk, nor will it insure that typhoid fever germs 

 are never present. On general principles the most care- 

 fully kept dairy would be least likely to furnish milk infected 

 with disease germs. So far, then, as dairy inspection can 

 bring about this desired result, it will reduce the danger of 

 contagion ; but since even well kept dairies have in some cases 

 been known to distribute milk contaminated with disease germs, 

 there is no method at hand by which it is possible for the pub- 

 lic to be guaranteed that the milk which comes from the dairies 

 is free from the germs of these four specific diseases. In other 

 words, as valuable as dairy inspection may be, it must be rec- 

 ognized that it is inadequate at the present time as a guard 

 against tuberculosis, typhoid fever, scarlet fever and diphtheria. 1 



DIARRHEAL DISEASES 



This type of disease has quite a different relation to our 

 problems. Diarrheal diseases are somewhat indefinite, the term 

 including such common troubles as summer complaint, cholera 

 infantum and other miscellaneous types of intestinal troubles 

 common in warm weather. The causes of these diseases are, 

 as yet, unknown. They are not specific diseases like the four 



1 Bienstock. Arch. f. Hyg., xxxix., p. 390, 1901. 

 Eichert. Zeit. f. Fleisch u. Milch Hyg., viii., p. 86, 1898. 

 Lubbert. Zeit. f. Fleisch u. Milch Hyg., vii., p. 1, 1896. 

 Neumann. Zeit. f. Fleisch u. Milch Hyg., vi., p. S3, 1894. 



