MASTITIS BACTERIA 95 



sides, it is liighly probable that the pus itself may be 

 hannful if it is taken l)y small children. The greatest 

 weight, however, is to be placed on the possibility that 

 tlie l^acteria contained in the mastitis milk may cause 

 disease in man, if they are taken into the digestive canal. 

 We know that staphylococci and streptococci which have 

 reached the human digestive canal in other ways have 

 sometimes ])rov(']i to be most virulent, and we may suji- 

 posc that the same is true of mastitiscocci and })ossi1ily 

 also of the coli-aerogenic forms. 



Inflammation of the udder is a very common condi- 

 tion of the cow and, therefore, it might ))»■ cxix'cted that 

 there would be fi'equcnt opportunity to observe the 

 harmful effect of iiil'ected milk upon man. Tliat this is 

 not the case may be due pai'tly to the relatively low 

 virulence of some of the mastitis bacteria fur man, and 

 liecause it is onl\' in the rai'est cases that it is [lossible 

 for the physician to gain sufficient int'onaation to trace 

 the special disease of his patient to the use of milk, and 

 then to trace this to a certain diseased cow. Further, 

 tlu're is the fact that most milk for small children is usim] 

 boiled, so that the bacteria i)rest'nt have, for the most 

 ]iart ln'cii killed.^'' As examples of the danger of using 

 tile milk from cows witii nuistitis, the luUowing cases cif 

 disease nuiy be mentioned: 



1. In diristiana, in 1S94, A. Ilolst observed acute 

 catarrh of the stomach and intestines in four adults and 

 four children, who lived in three sejiarate houses. They 

 had all drunk milk some hours before the attack. Those 

 members of the household who had taken little, or boiled, 

 milk remained in good health. The milk in question had 

 a normal api>earance, but was slightly acid and con- 

 tained masses of shoit or long streptococci. The milk 



'•'' In Denmark, as in other countries of Continental Europe, verj' 

 little raw milk i^ fed to cliiklren. [L. P.] 



