66 ELIMINATION OF PATHOGENIC MICRO-ORGANISMS. 



processes by administering large quantities of water, and even 

 diuretics. 



Escherich (" Bacteriologische Untersuchungen iiber Frauen- 

 milch," Fortschritte der Medicin, B. iii. p. 231) examined the milk 

 for bacteria in patients suffering from puerperal infection, and, 

 without exception, found that it contained the staphylococcus 

 pyogenes aureus or albus. After having satisfied himself by the 

 examination of twenty-five healthy cases that normal milk con- 

 tained no microorganisms, he examined the milk of such patients 

 whose bodily temperature was increased by puerperal processes, or 

 lactation, who, in fact, presented evidences of septic conditions, 

 and here he found regularly micrococci present in the milk, prin- 

 cipally the staphylococcus aureus and albus. In puerperal women, 

 who had fever from other causes, such as pulmonary tuberculosis, 

 otitis media, etc., no microorganisms were found in the milk. He 

 believes that the microbes are introduced into the milk through 

 the blood, which they enter in puerperal septicaemia, through 

 wounds or abrasions of the genital tract. 



Bumm (" Zur Aetiologie der puerperalen Mastitis," Archiv f. 

 Gf-yndkologie, B. xxiv. p. 262) cultivated from a case of puerperal 

 mastitis a diplococcus which resembled the gonococcus very much. 

 He injected the culture under his own skin, and produced an 

 abscess. Karliuski injected a pure culture of staphylococcus pyo- 

 geues aureus into a vein of a puerperal rabbit on the third day 

 after labor. In twenty-four hours the animal's milk proved to con- 

 tain numerous staphylococci. On the fourteenth day the animal 

 died of pyaemia. 



Bolliuger (" Ueber Tuberkelbacillen im Euter einer tuberku- 

 losen Kuh, und iiber die Yirulenz des Secretes einer derartig 

 erkraukten Milchdriise." Bayr. Arztl. Intelligenzblatt, 1883, No. 

 16) found tubercle bacilli in the parenchyma of the udder, as well 

 as in the secretion in the milk ducts in a cow suffering from tuber- 

 culosis, which, on being inoculated in guinea-pigs, produced typi- 

 cal tuberculosis. 



Hirschberger (Archiv f. Idin. Medicin, June, 1889) has made 

 some very interesting investigations in reference to the presence of 

 tubercle bacilli in the milk of tuberculous cows. The material 

 was furnished by the abattoir of Munich, and the examinations 

 were made in Bellinger's laboratory. The whole udders of cows 

 that were known to be tuberculous were sent to the laboratory, 

 where, under the strictest antiseptic precautions, the milk ducts 

 were opened and the milk removed was injected into the peritoneal 

 cavity of guinea-pigs. Twenty inoculation experiments were 

 made in as many animals, and in eleven, or in fifty-five per cent., 

 the result was positive. In most of those cases the disease ap- 



