33 
human case. These cows became ill, had a rise in temperature, and 
on the fifth day there appeared upon the udder an eruption character- 
ized by papules, vesicles, and crusts. He states that he isolated the B. 
diphtheriae from the vesicles, pustules, and milk. Other experiment- 
ers ° 6 have however failed to get similar results. The Klebs-Loffler 
bacillus has been isolated from market milk by Bowhill, c Eyre, d 
Klein, e and Dean and Todd.^ 
KLEBS-LOFFLER BACILLI IX MILK. 
Dean and Todd reported that in certain families supplied with 
milk from two cows there occurred 2 cases of clinically typical diph- 
theria and 3 of sore throat, that in one family using the milk only 
after sterilization no case occurred. Inspection of the cows showed 
papules, crusts, and ulcers on the teats and udders. One of the cows 
seemed well and gave apparently normal milk; the other had a 
mammitis and gave a scanty, ropy, semipurulent and slightly blood- 
tinged milk. Cultures were made from the throat of one of the diph- 
theria patients and also from the ulcers and milk of each cow, and 
typical Klebs-Loffler bacilli were isolated in all cases. The milk of 
the cow with mammitis also contained streptococci. The bacillus 
isolated was virulent and markedly pathogenic to guinea pigs, but 
diphtheria antitoxin protected guinea pigs against large doses. The 
udder eruption was shbwnTo be contagious to cows and capable of 
spread by the hands of the milker, but no B. diphtheriae were found 
in vesicles and ulcers of the secondary bovine cases. Calves were not 
protected from this disease by diphtheria antitoxin, nor by this dis- 
ease from cowpox. The conclusions drawn were that the ulcers on 
the udders had become secondarily infected with B. diphtheriae, 
probably accidentally from some apparently healthy throat, and that 
the udder affection was a separate disease. 
Eyre 9 has shown the ability of the B. diphtheriae to proliferate in 
raw milk drawn from the cow under aseptic conditions as follows : 
0 hours. 
1 
24 hours. 
48 hours. 
^ 7 days. 
B. diphtheriae 
— 
— 
39 
1,170 
22,000 
I 
19,000,000 
« 
“Abbott (A. C.), Jour. Path. & Bact., 1894, II, p. 35. 
6 Ritter, Centralblatt f. Bakt., Referat, 1896, XIX, p. 662. 
c Bowhill, Veterinary Record, 1899, April 8th. 
d Eyre, Brit., Med., Jour., 1899., II, p. 586. 
e Klein, Journal Hygiene, Carnb., 1901, I, p. 85. 
f Dean & Todd, Jour. Hygiene, Camb., 1902, II, p. 194. 
9 Eyre, loco Citato. 
24907— Bull. 41—08 3 
