142 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



perfectly healthy (sic); there was no sore nor any 

 ulcer of any kind. The cow was in good flesh, but 

 yet there was a large amount of pus and streptococci 

 in this milk. That had never been discovered in the 

 city of Buffalo before this year, because we never had 

 a bacteriological examination of milk, and we have 

 been drinking that kind of milk ever since we have had 

 milk coming into the city. If that cow was tubercular, 

 if the lacteal ducts contained tuberculosis, people drink- 

 ing that milk were very likely to be infected with tuber- 

 culosis." *^ 



This quotation from an address which I was privi- 

 leged to hear Health Commissioner Greene, of Buffalo, 

 make at a Milk Conference in the Academy of Medi- 

 cine, New York, in November, 1906, is a very mild 

 description of a condition which is widespread and 

 common, almost beyond belief. Not long ago, I 

 heard of a wealthy man in New Jersey who kept 

 several high-grade Holsteins, of which he was very 

 proud. One of the animals, a particularly fat and 

 fine-looking cow, was specially selected to provide 

 the milk for his infant daughter. But when the 

 tuberculin test was applied, it was found that each 

 of the cows was affected. The owner could not 

 believe the report and was only with difficulty per- 

 suaded to have his favorite cow slaughtered and a 

 post-mortem examination made. Not only were 

 there abundant evidences of generalized tubercu- 



