506 
there will be little or no danger of contaminating the milk. Over- 
kept, fermented, and soured foods tend to produce acidity and other 
changes in the milk. Swill, spoiled gluten meal, and ensilage put 
up too green are all more or less injurious to milk. Distillery swill, 
n addition to the bad flavor which it gives the milk, may cause the 
secretion of small quantities of alcohol in the fluid. That such alco- 
holic milk is deleterious to children, as well as to the calves and 
lambs fed on it, is a well-known and accepted fact. Milk is also 
modified very sensibly by the use of certain medicines, and the list 
of drugs which are excreted in the milk and give it an abnormal 
odor or flavor or render it deleterious to the consumer is quite 
lengthy. Among the more important may be mentioned opium, 
all volatile oils, purgative salts, rhubarb, arsenic, mercury, lead, 
zinc, iron, creolin, scammony, iodin, potassium iodide, antimony, 
bismuth, ammonia, and certain acids. 
POISONOUS MILK. 
Toxic properties may be manifested in the milk of cows that have 
eaten certain poisonous plants. Thus, poison ivy ( Rhus toxicoden- 
dron) produces a condition in cattle, during which the milk is capa- 
ble of producing in the consumer severe gastro-intestinal symptoms 
with weakness. Leaves of the common artichoke are also said to 
produce certain toxic properties in the milk which result in abdomi- 
nal pains and diarrhea in the person consuming it. 
COLOSTRUM. 
Milk should not be used within fifteen days of parturition or 
during the first five days after parturition. All cows should be 
dried off at least fifteen days before calving, not only for the sake 
of the animal, but also on account of the poor quality of such milk 
» at that time. This milk before and after parturition is called colos- 
trum, and is a yellow, viscid fluid of a strong odor, bitter taste, and 
acid reaction. The ingestion of such milk is liable to produce diar- 
rhea, colic, and other digestive disturbances. 
RECOMMENDATIONS. 
In view of the facts above enumerated the following recommen- 
' dations are made: 
1. That all cows on dairy farms producing milk for the District of 
Columbia be tagged, tattooed, or otherwise marked for purposes of 
identification. 
2. That all milk produced on such dairy farms shall come from 
either tuberculin-tested cattle, which shall be retested at least once 
