212 BACTERIA IN AIR, SOIL, WATER, AND MILK 



bacilli are a prolific source of epidemic spread by milk. 

 One of the carriers mentioned on page 121, went to 

 work on the dairy farm of her brother immediately 

 after the death of her husband. In three weeks twenty- 

 eight cases of typhoid broke out on the farm and among 

 those using its milk. Although some sanitarians 

 discredit the milk transmission of typhoid, the follow- 

 ing observation is very significant when taken together 

 with the fact that the Bacillus typhosits has been found 

 in milk. There is a relatively greater number of 

 women and children affected in milk-borne epidemics, 

 while in water and general epidemics more men are 

 affected. Pasteurization easily kills the typhoid 

 bacillus. 



Tuberculosis. The question of the transmission of 

 tuberculosis by milk is one that has raised much dis- 

 cussion, since Koch said that the bovine type of 

 bacilli does not produce tuberculosis in human beings. 

 The matter seems settled now that tuberculosis in 

 the young may be caused by the bovine bacillus, and is 

 most commonly located in the cervical and abdominal 

 glands and in the meninges. If a cow have tuber- 

 culosis of the udder, tubercle bacilli are usually found 

 in great numbers in the milk. If she have lesions 

 elsewhere she may still excrete the bacilli in the milk, 

 but it is impossible to determine when or in what 

 numbers. The obvious indication is not to use milk 

 from a tuberculous animal. Tuberculin tests are now 

 being required almost everywhere when permission 

 to register a milch cow is asked. No cow giving a 

 tuberculin test should be used for a milk supply. 

 Bacilli are also excreted in feces of infected animals, 



