MILK AS A FACTOR IN THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 
J 03 
Contamination, however, does not only come from the cow, 
but the milkers’ hands and clothing, as well as pails, strainers, 
receptacles for holding and cooling milk, milk jars and skim¬ 
mers, all should be sterilized. It is not sufficient to rinse out a 
pail with warm water. Pails should be washed with soda solu¬ 
tion and then with boiling water, and if there are any seams in 
the pail, these should be scrubbed with a brush (all seams in the 
pail, without exception, should be soldered, otherwise the seam 
itself will be a receptacle for micro-organisms). Milkers’ hands 
should be thoroughly washed with soap and warm water, and 
instead of any old dirty clothes being used for milking, clean 
overalls should invariably be used. The udder should also be 
thoroughly washed before milking. In this way the micro¬ 
organisms that are not washed off will adhere to the damp sur¬ 
face, and will not be so likely to fall off into the milk. Cows 
should also be groomed and curried each day as thoroughly as a 
horse. These are no idle fancies, but are well established facts, 
that are well illustrated by several investigators, notably by Dr. 
P. H. Bryce, of Ontario. In Dr. Bryce’s experiments, gelatine 
plate cultures were poured, c. c. of milk being added for each 
culture. In three days at a temperature of 66.70° F. the vari¬ 
ous plates gave the following results : 
I Plate., Direct from the cow, no precaution except that the 
milk was received into sterilized test tubes : 15 micro-organisms 
per c. c. 
II Plate. Pail in stable receiving milk from different cows, 
milk strained through a cloth : 720 micro-organisms per c. c. 
III Plate. Milk from cooling apparatus after cooling: 884 
micro-organisms per c. c. 
IV Plate. Milk from bottles immediately after filling : 1640 
micro-organisms per c. c. 
These experiments plainly show the greatest source of con¬ 
tamination. In the first plate, milking directly into a test tube, 
after three days at a temperature of 66.7o°F. there were only 15 
micro-organisms per c. c. This milk came directly from the 
cow into a sterilized test tube and of course there was no outside 
