TUBERCULOSIS 1^3 



Milk is without doubt a very prolific source of infection, 

 as the following facts will show : The milk may become 

 infected from outside sources, such as dust containing 

 dried-up phthisical sputum, but the milk is more fre- 

 quently directly infected from the animal yielding it suffer- 

 ing from tubercular disease of the milk-glands. Cows with 

 apparently sound udders, but affected with tuberculosis of 

 the lungs, have been known to yield milk containing 

 tubercle bacilli. In Copenhagen and Berlin, where all 

 animals, before going to the slaughter-house, are examined 

 by experts, the percentage of the oxen and cows affected 

 with tubercular disease, from 1890 to 1893 inclusive, was 

 found to be 17*7 and 15"1 per cent, respectively of the total 

 number examined.* This is in accordance with Hirch- 

 berger's observations, who found that 10 per cent, of the 

 cows living in the neighbourhood of towns suffer from 

 tuberculosis, and 50 per cent, of these yield milk containing 

 tubercle bacilli. 



Drs. Woodhead and M'Fadyean found the tubercle 

 bacillus in six samples of milk out of six hundred samples 

 examined. 



The question of the use of tuberculous milk has received 

 much more attention on the Continent than it has in this 

 country. In Denmark a most thorough and complete 

 system of inspection has been instituted with excellent 

 results ; cattle found to be tuberculous are at once isolated, 

 and, if necessary, slaughtered, and the body destroyed. 



The great mortality amongst young children, due to 

 tubercular intestinal affections, is undoubtedly due to the 

 use of milk containing the tubercle bacillus. Delicate 

 children are the most susceptible, as, owing to imperfect 

 nutrition and other causes, the system is unable to resist 

 the attack of the organisms. Brouardel cites a case where 



* Eoyal Commission on Tuberculosis (1895). 



