INFLUENCE OF DISEASE UPON MILK 117 



isms. At the time of abortion the udder secretion fre- 

 quently assumes the characteristics of colostrum. 



When injected into guinea pigs or fed to them, milk 

 containing the abortion bacillus produces proliferative 

 changes similar to those caused by the tubercle bacillus. 

 The organism is also pathogenic for animals of several 

 other species. This widespread pathogenicity and its 

 frequent occurrence in milk suggested the desirability 

 of investigations to determine if the organism was con- 

 cerned in the sclerotic changes occurring in the organs 

 and tissues of man and the domestic animals. Mohler 

 and Traum inoculated guinea pigs with material from 

 twenty-eight tonsils and adenoids from milk-consuming 

 children. The material from two of the tonsils produced 

 lesions in three guinea pigs, but the Bacillus abortus was 

 recovered only from the lesions in one of these animals. 

 Whether the organism was actually responsible for the 

 change in the tonsil or whether it merely happened to 

 be lodged on the surface could not be determined. 

 Schroeder also made a number of similar tests, all with 

 negative results. Mohler tested the blood serum of 

 twenty-five persons with the complement fixation and 

 agglutination tests and obtained negative results in all 

 cases, while Larsen and Sedgwick, in applying the com- 

 plement fixation test to the blood serum from 425 chil- 

 dren, obtained 73 positive reactions (17 per cent.). 

 Ramsey tested the blood of 116 children in the same 

 manner, but the reaction was positive in only seven cases. 

 Nicholl and Pratt obtained positive reactions with the 

 agglutination test on the blood serum of several children. 

 No definite statement can be made as to whether the anti- 



