Q2 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. | 
BACTERIA IN FRESHLY DRAWN MILK. 
BY! Hew. CONN, 

Recent papers by Harrison and Cumming (Jour. Ap. Mic. 
M., p.. 2030, 1903 and Rev. Gen. d. Lait. II., p. 457, 1903) Mave 
treated of the bacteria present in freshly drawn milk and, have 
reached results in some respects quite at variance with those 
which have been obtained by others. In these experiments. 
milk was drawn with careful aseptic precautions. The udder 
was carefully washed with a solution of 1 to 1000 mercury bi- 
chloride, the milk was drawn immediately into sterilized vials,. 
which were closed at once, and was then studied by bacterio- 
logical methods. The data thus obtained were such as to give 
the number and to a certain extent the species of bacteria in 
milk'drawn directly from the teats of the cow. The results of 
this paper, in brief, were as follows: The number of bacteria 
present in such milk was widely variable but usually very 
high. The highest number in one cow was 120,000, and the 
lowest in the same cow 24,080. A second cow gave only 100 
to 500 per cubic centimeter. The species found in fore milk 
were several, but in all cases, according to the authors, 96 per 
cent. of them consisted of Lact. lactis actdi I. and [7, (Conn, 
Nos. 206 and 202), and B. aerolans (Conn, No. 197), all of 
which are common typical lactic organisms. In other words, 
according to these authors, over 95 per cent. of the bacteria 
present in the fore milk of the cows upon which they experi- 
mented were typical lactic bacteria. 
These results are quite different from those that have been 
obtained in recent years-by others. Burr (Cent. f. Bact. IL., 
VIII., 236, 1902), in experiments carried on in this place, 
concluded that the bacteria in the fore milk of cows contain 
the lactic organisms in only a very small percentage of cases. In 



