110 
American Milk-Condensing Factories. 
with such fung^i as are introduced from without and which 
originate in -putrid matter of any kind ; their whole influence 
is harmful in a high degree. It is one of the most commonly 
observed facts of nature that milk is especially susceptible to the 
influence of emanations from putrid matter; or is liable to 
become tainted, as it is more generally put ; which are but 
other ways of saying that the germs of fungi that are continually 
thrown off from putrefying matter find in the milk a place where 
they can readily grow and multiply ; and so insidious are these 
influences, so readily can these minute germs make their way 
anywhere and everywhere, that if the air containing them in 
unusual quantity is inhaled by the cows, the milk will be infected 
before it leaves the hag. 
This statement is consistent with numerous well authenticated 
facts. Milk from cows inhaling bad odours has been found to be 
tainted and incapable of being made into good cheese. The fact 
was first brought to notice by Mr. Foster, of Oneida, whose herd 
of cows inhaling the emanations from the decaying remains of a 
dead horse, caused their milk to be unfit for making cheese — 
and not only the milk of the cows which inhaled the odour, but 
that from a large number of other cows, which had been 
mingled with the former in the cheese-factory vats. All the 
facts concerning the case were so carefully noticed and investi- 
gated, that it left no doubt as to the cause of the tainting of the 
milk. Repeated observations of a similar character, by members 
of the American Dairymen's Association, established the prin- 
ciple beyond doubt. Milk producers, then, may regard this 
point as a settled principle ; — they cannot allow their cows to 
inhale offensive emanations from putrefying animal matter with- 
out injury to their milk ; they inoculate the milk with the germs 
of filthy fungi, which make haste to convert it into filth, similar 
in character to that of the putrefying substance from which they 
emanated. To what extent the health of stock, and that of 
persons partaking of such milk, may be affected by such organ- 
isms, is a question of great importance, but concerning which I 
have not sufiicient data to venture an opinion. 
Again, I have seen numerous cases where milk was tainted 
from the cows having passed through sloughs of decomposing 
vegetable matter. Particles of dirt adhere to the udder or other 
parts of the animal, and, becoming dry, some of the dust per- 
chance falling into the milk during the milking, thus introduce 
germs which make rapid work in decomposing and putrefying 
good healthy milk. 
A most notable example of this came under my observation 
while on a visit to the cheese factory of Mr. L. B. Arnold of 
Tompkins county, in 1870. When the milk was received at 
