212 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK 



number of cases the milk of cows undoubtedly affected has been 

 used without producing any noticeable morbid effects." Sir John 

 Simon came to somewhat similar conclusions seven years earlier.^ 

 The conditions occurring in persons who had consumed the milk, 

 and which was attributed to Foot-and-mouth Disease, were, mainly, 

 alimentary disturbance, some fever, and an herpetic eruption about 

 the lips and mucous membrane of the mouth. Against this sug- 

 gestion of communicability must be set the broad fact that Foot- 

 and-mouth Disease used to be extremely prevalent, affecting 

 hundreds of thousands of cattle, and if it had been a disease com- 

 municable to man through the milk supply, outbreaks due to it 

 would have been very frequent and extensive, which they certainly 

 were not. It may, therefore, be assumed that this disease is not, 

 as a rule, communicable to man through milk.^ It should, how- 

 ever, be noted that the milk of cows suffering from the disease is 

 highly poisonous to calves and lambs, in the latter soon proving 

 fatal. But the communicated disease is not Foot-and-mouth 

 Disease. 



Pathogrenic Bacteria in Milk 



When we ask ourselves what is the evidence as to the existence 

 and amount of disease in milch cows, and what pathogenic bacteria 

 have actually been found in milk (viewing the matter, of course, 

 solely from the standpoint of communicability of disease to man 

 through milk), we are met by a very large body of facts. Refer- 

 ence can only be made to a few typical series of such facts in this 

 place. 



Clinical evidence. — In the first place we may take London 

 as an example. From 1899 to June 1903, the London County 

 Council have carried out periodic veterinary inspections of the 

 milch cows stabled in the metropolis. The cows numbered between 

 4000 and 5000.^ Thirteen examinations have been made with the 

 following result : — 



* Fifth Report of Medical Officer of Privy Council^ 1862, p. 31. 



2 In Allbutt's System of Medicine, vol. ii., pp. 691, 692, McFadyean 

 enumerates various instances of transmission to man through infected milk. 



^ Compiled from Reports of Medical Officer of Health to the London County 

 Council, 1899-1901. For the returns since 1901 we are indebted to the courtesy 

 of Mr Shirley F. Murphy, the Medical Officer of Health of the London County 

 Council, who has kindly furnished us with the figures before they have appeared 

 in his Annual Reports for 1902-3. The "first examination" was conducted by 

 Mr P. J. Simpson, the subsequent examinations were made by Mr W. F. Shaw. 



