I 4 4 MILK AND ITS HYGIENIC RELATIONS 



unreasonable one. This view has been adopted by a number of 

 workers, but not by all. 



Bergey (3) (1907), using Trommsdorff's method, believed that 

 milk very generally contained leucocytes and streptoccoci. Should 

 the content of both cells and streptococci rise together, this was 

 diagnostic of a condition of mastitis. When this occurs he believes 

 that an indurated area can usually be detected in the udder. 



Gminder and also Frick and Miller believed that in conditions 

 of mastitis, leucocytes were present in excess together with strepto- 

 cocci, while Savage obtained no definite relationship between the 

 presence of a high cell count and streptococci. 



Gratz and Maray, and Seibold consider that there are no strepto- 

 cocci in the milk obtained from a healthy cow, but this view is 

 not borne out by the observations of numerous other workers. 

 Thus streptococci were obtained in milk collected from cows who 

 were entirely healthy as far as could be ascertained clinically by 

 Bergey (i, 2) and Rosenow. There is, further, abundant evidence 

 that the milk which is in the teats when milking is commenced 

 contains bacteria, some of which may be streptococci. 1 



Hewlett has also given cases where streptococci were found 

 in the milk, and that in the case of a cow who ' ran her milk.' The 

 presence of streptococci was accompanied by a high cell content, 

 but no disease which could be described as mastitis of an acute 

 or suppurative type was found. 



Lewis does not consider that any standard of cells is possible 

 as a means of diagnosing disease, even when there are clumps of 

 cells, unless these are definitely polymorphonuclear or eosinophile 

 cells, either with or without the accompaniment of streptococci. 

 He agrees with Campbell and Ross, quoted above, that there are 

 usually more cells in the strippings than in the rest of the milk. 

 The work of Rullmann, Pennington and Roberts may also be 

 compared. 



It has been suggested by numerous authors that the organisms 

 found in the first milk have gained access to the inside of the teat 

 from the exterior. Streptococci are readily found on the udder, 

 and there is no difficulty in supposing that they occur also on the 

 outside of the teats and probably are able to pass some way up the 

 ducts. 



The whole question of cell content and its relation to the presence 

 of streptococci was carefully investigated in America by the New 

 York Milk Committee, and in 1912 they reported their considered 

 opinion. No more recent work has appeared to alter the opinions 

 there expressed. The Committee say : 



'No method has yet been accepted for accurately distin- 

 guishing between the pus cells and other cells that may be 

 in the milk that do not have an origin in inflammatory 



1 Cp. Freudenreich. 



