MILK HERDS 509 



an indurated or apparently diseased udder a small fragment 

 of tissue for examination. " The use of this trocar," says Nocard, 

 " has helped me greatly, and has led me to determine in an hour 

 when cows are affected by tuberculous mammitis, where I should 

 otherwise have had to have kept them under surveillance for 

 several weeks if I had had to wait for the result of the injection 

 of milk into the peritoneum of guinea-pigs." Bacteriological 

 examination may be applied in other ways in the testing of 

 milch cows. For example, discharges from the nostrils, matter 

 coughed up, or scraped or sponged off the pharynx, pus from 

 suppurating tumours, discharge from ulcers on the udder or 

 elsewhere, tissue of glands, etc. 



The Manchester metJiod. — The combined use of sampling, 

 inspection, and bacteriological examination has been well shown 

 in Manchester where the method now in practice is, according to 

 Dr Niven, as follows : — 



In connection with the procedure taken under the Milk 

 Clauses, it may be well to state how cows having suspicious 

 udders are discovered, and the nature of the disease definitely 

 proved. 



1. The first step in connection with milk supplied from the 

 country is to take samples at the railway stations. In taking 

 samples of milk, whether at the railway stations or from suspicious 

 cows at farms, special care is required so that they be taken under 

 strict antiseptic precautions, and everj-thing possible is done to 

 prevent outside contamination. All samples are taken in sterilised 

 bottles, and accompanying these are rubber corks, tin ladles, and 

 numbered metal cases to contain the whole. All of these are 

 sterilised at the Pathological Laborator)', whence the}' are sup- 

 plied to the Public Health Office by Professor Delepine. The 

 samples are taken at the railway stations by the Food and Drugs 

 Inspectors, and the samples, after the necessary notes have been 

 taken, are labelled and taken to Professor Delepine, who tests 

 them for tubercular infection. 



2. The bacteriological examination occupies about a month, 

 when a report is received at the Public Health Office i?iving the 

 result of the test. When the sample has been found to cause 

 tuberculosis, the farm from which the tuberculous sample has been 

 sent to Manchester is visited by the deputy of the Medical Officer 

 of Health and the veterinary surgeon, but not until an order 

 from a Justice of the Peace, authorising such visit, has been first 

 obtained. 



