754 
FUNGI IN COWS’ MILK. 
By James Law, Professor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, Cornell 
University, New York, U.S. 
(Reprinted from The Lens.) 
The presence of living organisms in milk has been recog¬ 
nised by various observers. Thus, in milk of an abnormally 
blue colour Braconnot detected a cryptogam to which La¬ 
marck gave the name of Byssus coeruleus. In other specimens 
of blue milk, Quidde, Fuchs, and Ehrenberg found a swarm 
of infusoria which they named, accordingly, Vibrio cyanogens. 
Yellow milk was found by Fuchs and Verheyen to abound 
in a yellow vibrion, Vibrio zanthogens. Yerheyen alleges 
that both these vibriones are present in milk which shows a 
greenish tint. Dr. Percy’s Report to the New York Aca¬ 
demy of Medicine in 1858, “ On Swill Milk,” shows the 
presence of spores in such milk when drawn, and the growth 
of mycelium within twenty-four hours thereafter, though the 
liquid had stood in a well-corked bottle in the interval. 
This report shows, further, the tendency of such milk to 
induce severe and even fatal disorders of the digestive or¬ 
gans of infants fed upon it exclusively in its fresh condition. 
As a further contribution to the pathology of this secre¬ 
tion, the following observations may not be uninteresting to 
the readers of The Lens. 
On October 1st, 1870, according to pre-arrangement, Mr. 
Potter, of Ithaca, New York, brought me a specimen of the 
milk yielded by one of his cows the same morning. This 
milk looked good, and even rich; it presented nothing un¬ 
natural in colour, consistency, or flavour. It was at once 
divided into five separate portions. One portion was put 
into a clean, scalded bottle, and well corked,—No 1. A 
second portion was put into a bottle with two drops of car¬ 
bolic acid,—No. 2. A third portion was put into a bottle 
with five drops of sulphurous acid solution,—No. 3. A 
fourth portion was first raised to 212° Fahr., and then 
placed in a well-corked bottle,—No. 4. The remainder of 
the milk was left in an open bowl,—No. 5. Some pure 
milk obtained for the use of my baby was placed in a 
scalded bottle in the same room with the above,—No. 6. 
Owing to other and more pressing engagements, no mi¬ 
croscopic examination was made until the same evening, 
when the milk had been twelve hours drawn. At this time 
the cream thrown up by Nos. 1 and 5 had become viscid 
