1905.] 



Pasteurised Milk. 



433 



dition of the fourth stomach and from the description of the 

 symptoms he had little doubt that the cause of death was 

 irritant poison. Some pieces of Cupressus macrocarpa were 

 found in their stomachs, and in default of any other explana- 

 tion it was suggested that this plant might have some poisonous 

 properties. 



In another case three heifers are stated to have suffered from 

 irritant poison ; one of them died, but the other two recovered 

 on removal to another field. The veterinary surgeon in this case 

 also attributed the death to a Cupressus (C. ncotkatensis) growing 

 by the side of the field. 



The Board have no information as to the poisonous properties 

 of these two species, nor can any record be found of any similar 

 case which would tend to confirm the suspicion that they are 

 poisonous to cattle. 



The Board have received through the Foreign Office a trans- 

 lation of an article by Dr. Ostertag, which appeared in the 



Danish Monthly Review for Veterinary 

 Pasteurised Milk. > c A , ■ \< 



Surgeons for August, dealing with the 



question of pasteurised milk. Dr. Ostertag observes that in 

 the course of the last fifteen years it has been repeatedly pro- 

 posed in Germany that a law should be passed prescribing that 

 all milk sold for human consumption should be pasteurised. 

 Against this proposal it was at first objected that it would be 

 impossible to carry it out, and, subsequently, as our knowledge 

 of the bacteriological and chemical properties of milk has 

 become more extensive, other objections of a sanitary nature 

 have been brought forward. It is now believed that if milk is 

 heated for pasteurisation in the ordinary way, its condition 

 becomes so much altered that instead of being an article of 

 nourishment it may become a source of danger; and Dr. 

 Ostertag adds that he does not believe there exists at the 

 present time any expert who will recommend a general obli- 

 gation for the heating of all milk offered for sale ; on the 

 contrary, efforts are now generally directed to producing the 

 milk under such conditions that it may without fear be consumed 



M M 



