THE COW IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 29 



milking. This is very unsanitary and should be 

 discouraged. The cows should be cleaned be- 

 fore milking and the udder wiped with a damp 

 cloth ; the opening in the top of the pail should 

 be as small as possible to permit milking, as 

 this will keep much dirt from getting into the 

 milk; the pails and vessels in which milk is 

 handled should be so constructed that the 

 milk can not collect around the seams and thus 

 be a breeding place for bacteria that are usually 

 associated with milk. 



It is the large dairies that furnish milk for 

 the people in the large cities, and it is in these 

 large dairies that the cows are forced for a 

 large milk production, and for this reason they 

 are not able to withstand disease as well as 

 they would under more favorable conditions, 

 and therefore the milk from such cows and 

 the cows themselves should be under compe- 

 tent inspection. 



Cows that have diseased udders are sure to 

 give off some of the inftction when the milk 

 is drawn; also, in diseases where the other 

 eliminating channels are not working properly, 

 infection and poisonous products are some- 

 times given off with the milk. We feel that 

 many of the diseases of infants in particular 

 are due to some infection in the milk, especially 

 where they are fed on cows milk, due to strep- 

 tococci and other virulent strains of infection 

 and their poisonous products. 



The reason milk is not recognized as the 



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