DIPHTHERIA BACILLUS AND MILK 341 



Hence the authors conclude that " there was present a specific con- 

 tagious eruptive condition apart from the diphtheritic infection." 



Such then is the present position of the bovine diphtheria 

 question. It is obviously a matter subjtidice. 



The Bacillus of Diphtheria and Milk 



There can, however, be no doubt as to the conveyance by milk, 

 on occasion, of the infective matter of diphtheria. In relation to 

 this fact, there are three further points to which it is necessary to 

 refer. They have to do with the behaviour of the B. diphthericB 

 in milk, the cases in which the bacillus has been found in the milk 

 supply, and the relationship of diphtheria in the human body and 

 the milk supply. The first point may be dismissed at once by saying 

 that milk is a favourable medium for the B. diphtJieruE. The 

 organism both lives and multiplies in ordinary sterilised milk ; it 

 thrives better in unsterilised milk at comparatively low temperatures 

 than at 37° C. In ordinary milk unsterilised and unprepared, the 

 commoner organisms multiply much more rapidly, and so the diph- 

 theria bacillus is in all probability soon crowded out 



The cases in which the B. diphthericB has been actually isolated 

 from milk are extremely few. In the outbreak of diphtheria at 

 Senghenydd in South Wales, in 1899, BowhilP isolated a 

 diphtheria bacillus from the suspected milk. The culture of the 

 bacillus in broth proved fatal to a guinea-pig in two days. In the 

 same year, Eyre ^ isolated a virulent diphtheria bacillus from some 

 milk implicated in an outbreak of diphtheria in a school. In 1900, 

 Klein ^ also reported the isolation of a genuine diphtheria bacillus 

 in an examination of 100 samples of milk in London. Lastly, Dean 

 and Todd, as we have seen, isolated the B. diphthericB from cow's milk 

 in 1901.* These are the only four authentic cases of actual detec- 

 tion of the B. diphtheri(B in ordinary milk with which we have met. 



The method which proved successful in the hands of these 

 bacteriologists may be briefly described. Bowhill obtained two 

 sample bottles of the suspected milk. These were well shaken 

 before being opened, in order that any suspended organisms 

 might be uniformly distributed. Five sterilised tubes of Loffler's 

 serum mixture were utilised for each sample, and a series of 



* Veterinary Record, 8th April 1899, No. 561. Jour, of State Medicine^ 

 1899, pp. 705-710. 



"- Brit. Med. Jour., 1899, vol. ii., p. 586. 

 3 Jour, of Hygiene, 1901, vol. i., p. 85. 



* Ibid., 1902, vol. ii., pp. 194-205. 



