400 Bacteria in Relation to Country Life 



family, but, also, will add to the profits of the dairyman 

 and will relieve him •from constant anxiety as to the 

 health of his cattle. Meanwhile, the consumer of milk 

 must seek safety in the pasteurization or boiling of the 

 milk, or at any rate, must patronize the dairyman who 

 honestly endeavors to keep tuberculosis out of his herd. 



Typhoid. — Unlike the tubercle bacilli, the germs of 

 typhoid multiply readily when they once find their 

 way into milk. Under favorable temperature condi- 

 tions, their increase may be very rapid and the milk 

 may then become the cause of a more or less serious 

 outbreak of typhoid fever. Many an epidemic of typhoid 

 has been traced to milk. Too much cannot be said 

 against the carelessness that makes such epidemics 

 possible. 



A few typhoid germs derived from polluted water 

 soon multiply to thousands in the warm milk, and, 

 when distributed along the milk route, bring disease 

 and perhaps death to many families. The dairyman 

 should remember that a few drops of water from his 

 well or brook, left in the milk can, is sufficient to bring 

 about this result. He should be careful, therefore, to 

 sterilize his milk cans and other utensils in live steam, 

 and to employ only boiled water for washing them when 

 cases of typhoid exist in his family or his immediate 

 neighborhood. 



He should be careful, also, to exclude from his dairy- 

 house and his barn all persons who come in intimate 

 contact with typhoid patients. Above all, he should 

 remember that convalescents from typhoid continue 

 to pass off living typhoid bacilli in the solid and liquid 



