320 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



From the above, which is by no means an overdrawn 

 picture, it is easy to see that many millions of bacteria 

 find their way into the milk-churn, and it is remarkable 

 that, with so many sources of pollution, more epidemics 

 are not traced to the milk- supplies, considering the fact 

 that milk forms the staple article of food of young children. 

 Milk forms such an excellent medium for the growth and 

 multiplication of bacteria that they increase in this medium 

 with excessive rapidity. Dr. Freudenreich examined a 

 sample of milk purchased in Berne, and determined the 

 rate of the multiplication of the microbal contents on 

 keeping the sample at 15'5° C. The sample at starting 

 contained 27,000 organisms per c.c. ; these after four hours 

 increased to 84,000 per c.c. ; after nine hours the increase 

 was to over 100,000, which became over 4,000,000 after 

 twenty-four hours. S. Eowland, after examining a number 

 of milks purchased in various shops in London, found that 

 they contained on the average 500,000 organisms per c.c. 

 Drs. Stewart and Buchanan Young have recently examined 

 the milk-supply of Edinburgh. Since November, 1894, 

 they have examined three hundred samples of milk from 

 fifty dairies scattered throughout the city. It was found 

 that three hours after milking there were in the winter, on 

 an average, 24,000 bacteria per c.c. ; in spring and early 

 summer 44,000 ; in late summer and autumn 173,000. 

 It was found that in dairies supplied with milk from the 

 country the average number of micro-organisms contained 

 therein five hours after milking was 41,000 per c.c, while 

 in dairies supplied from town cowkeepers the average 

 was 352,000 per c.c. Numerous other investigators have 

 published similar results, which show how universally 

 milk-supplies are bacterially contaminated as the result 

 of the primitive and insanitary methods employed in their 

 collection and storage. 



