432 



DISEASES OF THE GENITAL ORGANS. 



This alteration is frequently observed in the summer-time, when 

 the dairy and stable are dirty and hot ; it is sometimes due to an 

 affection of the digestive apparatus, or to the use of decomposed, or 

 mouldy alimentary matter ; according to Miiller, it may be caused 

 by the ingestion of butter wort {Pinguicula), a plant which is used 

 in Sweden in order to produce it artificially. 



Filamentous milk contaminates rapidly the whole amount of the 

 draught. 



Characters. Two days after being drawn the milk becomes 

 thick, viscous, filamentous ; its coagulation is incomplete ; the 

 cream is only deposited in a very small layer; it is difficult to obtain 

 butter from it, and this possesses a viscous consistence and a stale 

 and disagreeable taste. The milk often turns into a whitish mass, 

 which is homogeneous, and so thick as not to run out when the 

 "vessel io which it was formed is turned upside down. By micro- 

 scopic examination we find, besides the described microbes, round 

 patches of eleminated casein (sphero-crystals). 



Treatment. We should make a complete disinfection of the 

 dairy with sulphuric acid and superheated steam, etc., and see to 

 the cleanliness of the vessels destined to receive the milk. Accord- 

 ing to Schmidt-Miihlheim, a temperature of 65° C. destroys the 

 micro-organisms of filamentous milk. In cases of digestive trouble 

 we must resort to stomachic and anti-catarrhal agents. Siedam- 

 grotzky and Haubner recommend hemp leaves (daily dose, 15 

 grammes). 



8. Blue Milk. 



This alteration, particularly common during summer and spring, 

 and in general during hot or stormy weather, is mostly found in 

 damp dairies, where it may persist for years (Steinhoff has observed 

 it in the same premises for a period of ten years). As a rule it dis- 

 appears during the cold season — that is to say, in fall and winter, 

 and sometimes also when the air has been purified by thunder- 

 storms or rain. It has been observed that sick animals are pre- 

 disposed to it. 



Etiology. The blue coloration is given to the milk by a 

 particular chromogenic bacterium, the B. syncyanum (Schroter). 

 Fuchs, who described this micro-organism in 1841, has given it 

 the name of Vibrio cyanogenus, and Ehrenberg that of Vibrio syn- 

 cyanus. Furstenberg has seen it upon the walls of infected dairies. 



