434 



DISEASES OF THE GENITAL ORGANS. 



The consumption of blue milk is dangerous for animals and alsa 

 for man ; Mosler has mentioned accidents produced in man by it& 

 use ; SteinhoiF has observed similar occurrences in pigs. 



Treatment. This alteration may be avoided by aeration, clean- 

 liness, and disinfection of the stables, dairy, and utensils. The 

 sulphurous acid vapors are perfectly suited for such disinfection. 

 Haubner says the addition of acid whey may replace all other 

 preventive means. In certain cases a change of diet is indicated. 

 According to Ziirn, the washing of the udder with an antiseptic 

 solution, thus destroying the micro-organism existing upon the 

 surface (or within it?), would often suffice to prevent this anomaly. 



Med milk, which is quite rare, seems to be but a modification of 

 the blue milk ; the different chromogenic microbes seem besides to 

 become easily transformed into one another;^ in cultures of red 

 milk, Schroter has obtained bluish, and others yellowish, cultures. 

 It is sometimes determined by the Micrococcus prodigiosus (Cohn) 

 or Bacteridium prodigiosum (Schroter), an elliptical, colorless, and 

 mobile bacterium, which produces a coloring matter similar to 

 fuchsin, and is of mucous consistence, rose at first, and later 

 blood-red ; the multiplication of these bacteria goes hand-in-hand 

 with the coagulation and acidification of the milk. Sometimes the 

 red spots on the surface are mixed with blue or yellow spots, which 

 are either isolated or agminated. The production of red milk is 

 announced by the same modifications as those of blue milk. 



Yellow milk is also an alteration which is very close to blue 

 milk. It is determined by a colorless and mobile micro-organism, 

 the Bacterium synxanthum (Schroter), which produces a coloring 

 matter varying from a yelk-yellow to lemon-yellow, and which is 

 similar to aniline yellow. This coloration appears quite often at 

 the same time as the green and blue ; it is more frequently ob- 

 served in boiled than in uncooked milk. Within forty-eight hours 

 the yellow spots begin to appear upon the surface of the boiled and 

 coagulated milk ; this becomes alkaline at the same time, the quan- 

 tity of whey increases, and the clots become separated into flakes ; 

 within six days it is liquid, watery, and very poor in caseous flakes,, 



1 The Bulletin of the Central Society of Veterinary Medicine for the year 1877 con- 

 tains an important communication from Dr. Larcher on red milk (for bibliography, 

 see his paper). This anomaly, generally due to the action of chromogenic micro- 

 organisms, may be produced, however, in certain cases by red globules, which become 

 mixed with the milk. — n. d. t. 



