590 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



deemed himself justified iu concluding that the milk coutaiued the 

 injurious elements. A further reason was found in the fact that 

 the four-year-old sister of the patient, who had drunk of the same 

 milk, but not such a large quantity also suffered from diarrhoea at 

 the same time that her younger sister was sick. The bacteriologi- 

 cal investigation of the suspected milk and evacuations of the 

 patient gave the following results : in the milk a bacterium was 

 found in great quantity, Avhich presented the morphological and 

 biological characteristics of the bacterium coli commune. In the 

 evacuations the same bacteria were found, as well as in the blood 

 of mice which had been infected with the fecal matter of the pa- 

 tient. It is a noteworthy fact that these bacteria liave been found 

 in a virulent condition in milk which had been boiled. This can 

 only be explained on the ground that the milk had not been boiled 

 enough, or that the boiled milk after it had become cool had 

 been poured back into the can, which had not been cleansed 

 sufficiently. 



Perhajis one of the most interesting cases of typhoid fever, 

 due to infection from milk, occurred in Plympton, England, 

 August, 1870. A certain milk dealer sold milk to one hun- 

 dred and forty-five families, and of the one hundred and 

 forty-five, seventy contracted tlie disease. The way the dis- 

 ease picked out the customers of the dairy in the various 

 streets was most striking. In one long street the milkman 

 supplied three families, and two of them were aftected. In 

 a block of twenty-five houses he supplied four families, and 

 they were all attacked. In a new neighl)orhood, where there 

 were about seventy houses, he supplied four families, and 

 three had the disease. In a square of fifty-nine houses he 

 supplied four, and all had it, and so on. On the other 

 hand, there were scarcely any cases in those families sup- 

 plied from other sources. 



The infection in this c^se was traced to an underground 

 tank in the cow house, which was contaminated from a leak- 

 inof sewer, and the water in the tank had been used to wash 

 the milk pails, and in this way the milk became infected. 



Changes in the Board. 



The term of Dr. Charles P. Lyman of Boston as a mem- 

 ber of this Board expired in September, and Acting Gov- 

 ernor Wolcott appointed Dr. John M. Parker of Haverhill 



