756 
FUNGI IN COW'S MILK. 
At the same date on which the milk was obtained two 
cows then giving impure milk were examined in the field. 
They appeared in health, so far as appetite, rumination, 
pulse, breathing, the state of the skin, &c., were concerned, 
but the clinical thermometer introduced into the rectum rose 
to 102° Fahr., the temperature of the other cows averaging 
100°. From an incision in the tail of one of the affected 
cows a little blood was obtained, and on microscopic exami¬ 
nation this was found to contain ovoid bodies of at least 
double the size of the ordinary blood-globules. After having 
stood eight days in a corked bottle, this blood showed a 
luxuriant growth of mycelium. 
On October 9th, the same day it was drawn, a drop of 
this blood was added to the pure baby’s milk already referred 
to, placed in a scalded bottle, and well corked. On October 
14th this, too, presented a rich fungoid growth. 
It only remained to ascertain the effect of withholding the 
water and using some of those parasiticides from which good 
results might be expected without any probability of taint 
or material injury to the milk. The spring and trough were 
accordingly fenced in, water supplied from a well at the 
buildings, and drachm doses of bisulphite of soda given to 
all of the stock for a week. The impurity of the milk at 
once disappeared, and has not returned. 
The chain of evidence now appeared complete. The 
water contained vegetable spores, which developed into a 
luxuriant growth of mycelium when allowed to stand or 
when added to milk of known purity. The presence of 
similar germs in the blood was demonstrated by microsco¬ 
pical examination, by the further development of the cryp¬ 
togam when the blood was allowed to stand, and by the 
appearance of the same product in milk to which a drop of 
this blood had been added. The constitutional effect of its 
presence was slight, being manifested by a rise of tempera¬ 
ture not exceeding 2° Fahr. The germs in question were 
present in the milk, and grew with great rapidity in this 
medium. Lastly, the disuse of the contaminated water and 
the administration of sulphites put an end to the affection. 
The experiments, it is true, might have been more satis¬ 
factory had they been conducted in a proper isolation appa¬ 
ratus ; yet with the counter-experiments on pure milk and 
boiled tainted milk standing side by side with them, in pre¬ 
cisely the same conditions and without the development of 
any such product, it does not seem that the conclusions can 
be fairly objected to. 
There is one more feature of the case which ought not to 
