MILK INSPECTION. 
689 
In children this disease for the most part takes the form of 
tabies mesenterica, and this alone, if no other evidence existed, 
is enough to point to milk as a source of infection. Microscopic 
examination of milk with a view to demonstrating the existence 
of the bacillus tuberculosis in it is quite impracticable because 
of the amount of their dilution. But their presence in affected 
milk has often been demonstrated by the injection of it into the 
subcutaneous tissue or into the peritoneum of guinea-pigs and 
. other susceptible animals. When the milk is drawn from 
affected udders for such injection, the disease is reproduced in 
these animals nearly every time. Authorities differ regarding 
the nocuity of milk drawn from admittedly tuberculous cows but 
whose udders are not invaded by the disease. Some scientists 
by injecting such milk into experimental animals have had pos¬ 
itive results, but in most cases the results have been negative. 
The fact that a proportion of these experiments show positive 
results, together with the fact that milk taken from affected 
udders give positive results almost invariably, furnish an indis 
putable basis for the conclusion that the average milk supply 
contains sufficient tubercle bacilli or spores to infect susceptible 
human subjects. This being the case it is imperative that the 
body politic defend itself against this danger by a system of 
milk inspection. Fortunately for this purpose we have an un¬ 
erring diagnostic agent in Koch’s tuberculin. Of the known 
results of this test and of the method of its application I need 
say nothing here, they are already so well known. 
In this State, up to the present time', the attempts to apply 
this test have been isolated, and inconclusive, simply because 
I they have been unorganized. We are far behind some of our 
I neighboring states. Of the Western States, Minnesota is far- 
in the lead, and as a city Minneapolis has attained a state 
of inspection that is close to ideal, at least in theory. As an in¬ 
centive to our agitation for a similar arrangement in Chicago, 
I will, with your permission, read some passages from Bulletin 
No. 51 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Minnesota. 
Page 350. “ Minneapolis has taken a creditable stand in this 
