1 Jan., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 31 
TYPHOID FEVER. 
The organism producing typhoid fever is able to withstand acids to a 
considerable degree; therefore, the natural increase in acidity in milk does 
not prevent the development of this disease organism, if it is once introduced 
into the milk. Scores of epidemics of this disease have had their origin traced 
to a contamination of the milk in a variety of ways. In some cases, the milker, 
convalescing from this disease, has resumed his work: with the cattle, and thus 
given an opportunity for a direct transmission of the disease germs from the 
patient to the milk. More often the relation is an indirect one, the connecting 
link being some person who has served in the dual capacity of nurse and milker. 
One of the most marked epidemics that have occurred in recent years was 
traced to faulty methods of cleaning the cans. The cans were cleaned with 
soap and hot water, and treated as they should be, with the exception that 
they were rinsed with cold water from a very shallow well that had been 
infected with typhoid organisms coming from sewage contamination. Where 
cases of typhoid fever, or, in fact, any other contagious disease, occur in the 
family of a dairyman, the greatest care should be exercised in order to prevent 
any possible contamination. 
DIPHTHERIA AND OTHER DISEASES. 
Diphtheria, scarlet fever, and cholera are diseases that are not infrequently 
spread by means of contaminated milk. ‘The first two are, as a rule, disseminated 
through the medium of the air,"so the infection of the milk must be guarded 
against with great care, where the disease is known to exist. Cholera is, 
usually, a water-borne disease, and the possible danger in this case is the same 
as in typhoid, where the utensils may be washed in infected water. The cholera 
urganism is unable to withstand acids, and does not thrive in raw milk, but, 
nevertheless, a considerable number of instances have been noted where 
epidemics have been traced to the use of milk. 
CHOLERA INFANTUM AND INTESTINAL DISORDERS. 
The danger that exists from the foregoing diseases fades into comparative 
insignificance when we consider the intestinal disturbances in children, and 
their relation to the milk supply. To a very considerable extent, Cholera 
infantum, and the various intestinal difficulties that occur so frequently with 
young children, especially during the summer months, are due tu the develop- 
ment of various species of bacteria that are present in the milk. These 
organisms belong to the putrefactive class, and, while not distinctively disease- 
producing, many of them are able to form poisonous substances therein, which, 
when absorbed into the susceptible digestive tract of young children, cause a 
variety of intestinal troubles. | 
The much higher mortality of bottle-fed, in comparison with breast-fed, 
infants, is attributable in a considerable degree to the infection of cows’ milk 
that is used for food. The introduction of pasteurisation or sterilisation, by 
which germ life in the milk is destroyed, removes the cause, and thus prevents 
the formation of these poisonous compounds. 
CHEESE-POISONING. 
Cases of poisoning attributed to the eating of various foods by adults is 
also to be traced, in many instances, to a similar cause. Poisoning from 
eating cheese, ice-cream, and sometimes milk, is not infrequently recorded. 
Professor Vaughan, of Michigan, has succeeded in separating a highly toxic 
substance from cheese that had been used as food, and has given to it the name 
tyrotoxicon (cheese poison). He has also been able to find certain kinds of 
bacteria which when inoculated into milk and fed to animals would produce 
symptoms of violent poisoning. In almost every case where it has been 
possible to trace such a trouble back to its source, it has been determined that 
‘the milk had been kept under faulty conditions, where the opportunity for 
the development of these putrefactive bacteria was present. — Hoard’s 
Dairyman. 
