TUBERCLE BACILLUS IN MILK 



219 



ence has already been made, may be classified separately for con- 

 venience as follows : — 



Table showing the Total Number of Milks Examined Bacteriologically 



FOR Tubercle Bacilli from August 1896 to 31ST December 1902. 



(Liverpool.) 



Obermiiller, Rabinowitsch, Jager, Petri, Bollinger, Martin, Peters, 

 Hamilton, Klein, Woodhead, McFadyean, Delepine, and many 

 other workers have found the tubercle bacillus in milk in dairies 

 or in the market. It has been found in almost all countries and 

 in almost every species of cow. It has been found in very few 

 instances, and scantily present, and it has been found in a high 

 percentage of cases, and present in large numbers. These variations 

 depend upon a variety of circumstances and conditions. In some 

 cases of marked tuberculosis of the udder, it may be impossible to 

 detect any bacilli at all, and yet the milk is without doubt infective. 

 More commonly, the bacilli are present in udder disease, in such 

 large numbers, that they may be found on microscopical exami- 

 nation in almost every cover slip prepared from the milk. 



From the large number of examinations of milk for the tubercle 

 bacillus now on record, we may quote a few examples, all of which 

 are based upon inoculation tests and not upon microscopical 

 examination only. Bang found true tubercle bacilli present in 

 14 per cent, of the cases he investigated ; Ernst 25 per cent. ; 

 Hirschberger over 50 per cent ; Klein 7 per cent in country milks ; 

 and Boyce 6 to 8 per cent, in town milks, and 17 per cent in 

 country milks. Kanthack and Sladen, in a model piece of investi- 

 gation, found the tubercle bacillus present in the milk of nine out 

 of sixteen dairies examined at Cambridge.^ In the same year 1 18 

 milks were examined in Islington, with the result that 14-4 per 

 cent, were found to contain the tubercle bacillus.- In Hackney, as 



* Lancet^ 1899, i. 74. 



2 Report on the Health of Islington (Dr Harris), 1899, p. 224. 



