THE EXAMINATION OE MILK 321 



Milk may be a very prolific source of infection in many 

 different ways. For instance, in the case of tuberculosis, 

 the milk may become infected from outside sources, such as 

 dust containing dried-up phthisical sputum. It may and 

 is more frequently directly iafected from the animal yield- 

 ing it suffering 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 in- 

 clusive, was found to be 17'7 and 15"1 per cent, respec- 

 tively of the total number examined.* This is in accord- 

 ance with Hirchberger'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 Macfadyen 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 five out of fourteen young girls living together in 



* Eoyal Commission on Tuberculosis (1895). 



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