BACTERIA IN FRESHLY DRAWN MILK. ie 
been repeated so many scores of times without exception that 
we are convinced that it expresses a general truth, especially 
Since it is confirmed by the work of Freudenreich and Barthel. 
It is certainly a fact that in the milk of this vicinity the com- 
mon lactic organism, Bact. lactis acidi, is not present to any 
great extent in the milk ducts and apparently is not present at 
all. What are the species of bacteria which are found in fresh 
milk in this region? A description of these species will be re- 
served for later publication, and only some general facts need 
be here given. Among them the bacteria found are, in most 
cases, iguefying bacteria, including both coccus forms and ba- 
cilli. These are sometimes abundant and sometimes compara- 
tively few. The larger majority of bacteria found in the fresh 
milk are wholly neutral in their action on milk. They fail to 
produce acid, they fail to produce any enzyme for digesting muk, 
and when inoculated into milk produce no decomposition that is 
perceptible. There are several species of these neutral forms, 
including streptococci and short rods, the streptococci being in 
the majority. The types of colonies which these organisms 
produce in ordinary gelatin are not characteristic, so that the 
several types are not easily distinguishable from one another. 
In the milk of our region, then, the bacteria present in milk 
immediately drawn from the animal consist of neutral cocci and 
bacilli and a considerable proportion of liquefying organisms. 
There is a moderate percentage of lactic bacteria, including 
occasionally B. coli and B. lactis aerogenes, but Bact. lactts acidt 
(206 and 202) are very rarely found, and in very small num- 
bers when present. One or two other species of unusual lactic 
bacteria are also frequently found. 
What is the explanation of the difference between our results 
and those of Harrison and Cumming? Beyond much doubt a 
considerable portion of the difference may be attributed to the 
difference in actual conditions; for it is quite certain that the 
species of bacteria which are found in the milk ducts in one 
locality are different from those found in another and may be 
different even in animals in the same herd. I am inclined to 
think, however, that this is not the whole difference. The dis- 
crepancy seems too great to be due to difference in individual 
cows, and the results seem to be more properly explained by 
