198 BACTERIA IN AIR, SOIL, WATER, AND MILK 



milk route. It is said that cholera may be transmitted 

 by milk contaminated with polluted water. 



Typhoid Fever. Typhoid fever may be trans- 

 mitted by milk when a case exists on a dairy farm or a 

 dairyman uses polluted water to wash his cans. In 

 perfectly fresh milk the germs do not thrive, but when 

 a little older the milk offers no resistance to their 

 multiplication. If sour, the lactic acid and alcohol not 

 only inhibit their growth, but actually kill them. It is 

 frequently in the period from cooling to distribution and 

 use that contamination occurs. This is done by the 

 hands of dairymen, shippers, tasters (dipping the finger 

 into the milk), or by domestic servants. Carriers 

 of typhoid bacilli are a prolific source of epidemic 

 spread by milk. Although some sanitarians discredit 

 the milk transmission of typhoid, the following obser- 

 vations are very significant when taken together with 

 the fact that the Bacillus typhosus has been found in 

 milk. There is a relatively greater number of women 

 and children affected in milk-born 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 



