MILK-BORNE DIARRHOEA 223 



milk has upon persons consuming it. In the main these are twofold, 

 namely, gastro-intestinal diseases and sore throats. The evidence 

 implicating streptococcal milk is empirical and circumstantial, and 

 yet it appears to be growing in force and volume. On the other 

 hand, streptococcus has been found in the fresh milk derived from 

 healthy udders (Eeed and Ward). 



Milk-borne Cholera 



The cholera bacillus is unable to live in an acid medium. Hence 

 its life in milk is a limited one, and generally depends upon some 

 alkaline change in the milk. Heim found that the organism of 

 cholera would live in raw milk from one to four days, depending 

 upon the temperature. D. D. Cunningham, from the results of a 

 large number of investigations in India, concludes that the rapidly 

 developing acid fermentations normally or usually setting in, con- 

 nected with the rapid multiplication of other common bacteria and 

 moulds, tend to arrest the multiplication of cholera bacilli, and 

 eventually to destroy their vitality. Boiling milk appears, on the 

 contrary, to increase the suitability of the milk as a nidus for 

 cholera bacilli, partly by its germicidal effect upon the acid-producing 

 microbes, and partly that it removes from the milk the enormous 

 numbers of common bacteria, which in raw milk cause such keen 

 competition that the cholera bacillus finds existence impossible. 



Professor W. J. Simpson, sometime the Medical Officer of Health 

 for Calcutta, has placed on record an interesting series of cholera 

 cases on board the Ardenclutha, in the port of Calcutta, which arose 

 from drinking milk which had been polluted with one quarter of its 

 volume of cholera-infected water. This water came from a tank 

 into which some cholera dejecta had passed. Of the ten men who 

 drank the milk, four died, five were severely ill, and one, who drank 

 but very little of the milk, was only slightly ill. There was no 

 illness whatever among those who did not drink the milk. In 1894, 

 a milk-borne outbreak of cholera occurred in the Gaya Gaol, affecting 

 some twenty-six persons. 



Milk-borne Epidemic Diarrhoea 



In 1892, Gaffky recorded an instance in which three men con- 

 nected with the Hygienic Institute at Giessen were suddenly taken 

 ill. They had chills, fever, diarrhoea, and general symptoms. The 

 only article of diet of which they had all partaken was milk, which 

 was traced to a cow suffering from enteritis. The milk of this cow as 

 it left the udder contained no bacteria. But bacteria gained access 

 during the milking from the dried particles of fsecal matter on the 



