The Origin of Bacteria in Milk. '29 



bedding which is perhaps spoilt by having been 

 housed in bad condition and containing spores of 

 mould, rust, smut or other fungus growths. The 

 cleanest and most unobjectionable bedding in every 

 respect is moss peat (not peat moss). A great in- 

 fluence is also exercised by the more or less frequent 

 changing of the bedding, because any carelessness in 

 this respect forces the animals to lie down in the 

 putrid and fermenting matter. 



Very often milk is still further polluted by the un- 

 clean hands of the person milking, by insufficient 

 cleansing of utensils which during the entire hand- 

 ling of the milk are brought into contact with it, and, 

 lastly, by the dust suspended in the stable air, being 

 partly dust from the feed and partly from the bed- 

 ding or the floor. We all know that to a certain 

 degree this contamination of milk by the above named 

 matters and, therefore, also by bacteria, cannot be 

 entirely avoided and some of these are even absolutely 

 necessary for the extraction of the products of milk, 

 but the above considerations clearly demonstrate as 

 does also longtime experience in dairying, that it is 

 by no means indifferent what degree of pollution is 

 attained and to which class more especially the bac- 

 terial infection belongs. 



When we recapitulate all that has been hitherto 

 said, and consider that all these bacteria possess a 

 marked altering and changing influence on the ingre- 

 dients of the milk — some slower, others more rapidly, 

 and that they assist and stimulate one another in 



