NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
J. F.
SHIRLAW
145
into the peribronchial interstitium (Plate VI) and their frequent numbers in
the blood vessels, correlated with the fairly frequent thrombosis of the
vessels, indicates a possible pathogenesis.
It is reasonable to consider that this case was one of mycotic pneumonia
but, as the tissues had been sent preserved in formalin, no further work was
possible to corroborate this opinion.
No detailed record of the clinical case was supplied with the material for
examination and no evidence could be obtained that the animal, from which
the lung tissues had been obtained, had died during the course of an epizootic.
Contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia was again reported from Assam in
March, 1938.
With the dispatch of tissues and fluids for examination, the Disease In-
vestigation Officer, Assam, reported that these were selected from an animal
dying during the course of a severe epizootic in which there was considerable
mortality. " The disease appeared enzootic in particular localities, with a ten-
dency to affect fresh centres in the neighbourhood and was seasonal, occurring
during the advent of the monsoon. During the course of an outbreak, acute
and chronic cases are encountered, the former of four to six days and the latter
of twelve to twenty days duration. In acute cases, a moderate pyrexia of
104. 6°F. was noted and both lungs were equally involved. In chronic cases,
there was a marked tendency for only one lung to be affected. On 'post-
mortem examination, the lung from a chronic case was uniformly hepatized
and firmly adherent to the chest wall. The chest cavity contained about a
gallon of sanguineous fluid and a similar fluid was noticed on incision of the
lung tissue, the lobules of which appeared variegated ".
The tissues sent for examination were ampoules of heart blood, of lung
and of pleural exudate, and pieces of lung in 50 per cent glycerine and 5 per
cent formalin. Experimental transmission of the disease with the material
supplied was immediately instituted at Mukteswar.
No transmission experiments were conducted with the blood or with the
fluid exudates collected from the pleural cavity and the lung, which were
grossly contaminated. The material used for transmission experiments was a
portion of the glycerinated lung. This was washed in sterile distilled water
and finely triturated with sterile sand in normal saline. Two c. c. of the
supernatant fluid was inoculated subcutaneously into the rightside of the neck
of a hill bull, five years of age. A soft painful swelling, of the size of a golf ball,
developed within twenty-four hours, and persisted for sixteen days, when
it ruptured and discharged a thin pus from which no micro-organisms were
cultivable on selected media. The abscess healed uneventfully, with no ex-
tension, and during the entire period of observation extending over two months
no febrile or systemic disturbance was noted on the part of the animal. A
second hill bull of the same age, received a larger inoculation of five c. c. of the
saline suspension, with similar results.
B
146 Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia in British India
Attempts at the cultivation of the causal organism of contagious bovine
pleuro-pneumonia from the samples of exudate, unfiltered and filtered (Berke-
feld V) were negative in Bennet's medium. The technique employed was that
of Tang and Wei in their study of this organism. On routine media, no growth
of any organism of significance was apparent.
On naked eye examination of the formalin preserved lung, the lesions were
found to be similar to those in the previous specimen with, in addition, a more
uniform thrombosis of the terminal branches of the pulmonary artery and
endarteritis of the proximal branches. Hæmorrhagic infarcts corresponding
in dimension and distribution with the area of lobules supplied by these vessels
were scattered throughout the lung pulp. The majority of the lobules still
contained air and there was no evidence of variegation or hepatization.
The lesion had evidently originated from the smaller blood vessels of the
interstitium.
Microscopically, the ' fungoid' bodies were present in considerable
numbers within the bronchial mucosa, throughout the interstitium and in the
blood vessels.
In a subsequent report, the Disease Investigation Officer, Assam, stated
that he had inoculated two calves with 10 c. c. of the pleural exudate from a
recent case, and had observed huge swellings at the site of inoculation. There
is no record, however, of his having attempted transmission in animals over
twelve months, which are known to be susceptible to experimental infection,
with the development of systemic reaction, and no information was forthcoming
on the epizootology of the disease, the number of animals affected during the
course of the outbreak, the cattle population of the area in which the disease
made its appearance, the percentage of deaths or the movements of cattle in
the affected areas. He mentioned, however, that sporadic cases of the disease
could be found during any part of the year in the affected localities,where once
there had been a wide epizootic.
This statement, in conjunction with the negative transmission experi-
ments conducted in the field and at Mukteswar, and the pathological findings,
including the negative attempts at the cultivation of the causal organism of
contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia, throws grave doubts on the contention
that contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia exists in Assam, if the materials
subjected to examination were representative of the disease suspected. In
a later report, June 1938, the Disease Investigation Officer comments on the
difficulty experienced in procuring authentic figures concerning the incidence
and mortality of the disease, although he reports that in an examination of the
pus from the abscesses which developed subsequent to the inoculation of the
pleural exudate of an acute case of the disease, he observed peculiar ' fungoid '
or ' needle-like ' bodies which did not stain by Gram's method.
This is an interesting observation helping, as it does, to accumulate more
evidence regarding the possible significance of these forms.
J. F.
SHIRLAW
147
It may not be out of place to mention that during the last few years, three
cases of sporadic pneumonia, in which the appearance of the lung was highly
suggestive of contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia, occurred at Mukteswar
(Plate V, fig. 2).
In two of these cases, the lesions were histologically similar to the Assam
specimens and in both, a fungus was readily apparent. Unfortunately, these
specimens had been fixed before the necessity for a cultural examination, which
the histological examination indicated, was realised. The fungus in these
cases, however, appeared conidial in type and unlike that described in the
Assam specimens.
The third specimen showed a greater interstitial involvement with small
foci of suppuration in the bands of hyperplastic tissue and a comparative
absence of exudate, with lobular necrosis. Corynebacterium pyogenes bovis
was readily isolated from this tissue and it was evident, on histological exami-
nation, that it was responsible for the lesions.
Edwards (unpublished work, 1927), discussing the problem of contagious
bovine pleuro-pneumonia in India, commented on the striking similarity
between the pneumonic lesions of this disease and those associated with a
chronic corynebacterial infection.
DISCUSSION
A survey of records shows that at no time has there existed any unanimity
of opinion on the occurrence of contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia in
India. The significant remarks of the Animal Administration to the effect
that bovine pleuro-pneumonia should be classified under ' non-ordinary',
i.e., belonging to the group of epizootic diseases, throw more than a suspicion
on the existence of the belief in the minds of the authorities that contagious
pleuro-pneumonia of bovines was a factor to be reckoned with in disease control.
The categorical statements in later Animal Administration reports doubt-
ing or even strongly denying the existence of such a disease in centres previously
considered infected (e.g., Bengal) seem, in the first few years of the present
century to have gained such ground, that by 1905-06, the reports of this disease
have suddenly ceased and more attention is being paid to the common epi-
zootic bovine pneumonia, about which, at this time, much was being learnt.
This disease, bovine hæmorrhagic septicæmia, known for many years in
France and in other countries, had, at the beginning of the century, come under
serious consideration as one of the most important bovine epizootics, and it
appears probable that, awake to rapidly developing concepts of animal disease
in other countries, reorientation of veterinary opinion in India occurred in
connection with this epizootic in common with many others.
The striking similarity between the pulmonary lesions of contagious bovine
pleuro-pneumonia and the more subacute lesions in hæmorrhagic septicæmia
can readily be accepted as one of the cogent explanations of the general con-
fusion regarding the disease.
J. F.
SHIRLAW
149
of mycotic pneumonia simulating the lesions of contagious bovine pleuro-
pneumonia has been encountered in sporadic form in cattle maintained at
Mukteswar. The finding of what appears a true fungus in the lesions of the
disease in Assam correlates the observations on the disease in cattle at Muktes-
war. It has been reported from Assam that the peculiar type of bovine pleuro-
pneumonia observed occurs in sporadic form. It has already been noted that
bovine pleuro-pneumonia is not a sporadic disease.
It would be premature, at this early stage of the investigation, to attempt
to explain the etiology of the disease in Assam ; only two sets of specimens
have been examined, but it is significant that, in both cases, the type of lesion
appears peculiar to the disease and is one which could be readily explained on
the basis of infection by a fungus, as in the cases observed at Mukteswar.
The essential origin is bronchiogenic and on the mucosa of the bronchi are
seen masses of spores which penetrate through the bronchial coats into the
interstitial tissue. Hæmorrhage of the small vessels of the bronchial wall is
apparent and a suitable explanation of the essential lesions of the peculiar type
of pneumonia described is that the spores enter the ruptured venules of the
mucous coat and thence make their way by the bronchial veins to the right
heart whence they return by the pulmonary arteries, the terminal branches of
which, being an end arterial system, they occlude with the development of the
lesions described. The fact that only one side of the lung may be affected is
explained by the observation that each lung is supplied with its own special
and anatomically different bronchial vascular system.
In mycotic pneumonia, Folger [1926] postulates a blood stream spread
of the spores, but it is contended by the writer that this is not necessary in view
of the anatomical distribution and peculiarities of the bronchial vascular
system. The spores developing in the lung in a case of mycotic pneumonia
can, and probably do, return to the lung by the branches of the pulmonary-
artery. The blood stream spread theory is hardly tenable in view of the fact
that no observations are available of the effects produced in the end arterial
system by circulating spores. If spores were circulating in the blood, a more
general thrombosis of the end arterial system, with the development of obvious
infarcts in the special organs supplied, would be of certain occurrence.
This not entirely irrelevant digression in pathology indicates the need
for continuous and intensive investigation on pneumonia of bovines in
India.
CONCLUSION
There is no evidence that contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia exists,
or has ever existed, in British India.
150 Contagious Bovine Pleuro-pneumonia in British India
REFERENCES
Baldrey, F. S. H. & Williams, W. O. (1909). William's Veterinary Medicine, p. 170.
Bennet, S. C. J. (1932). Jr. Compar. Path. & Ther. 45, 257-292.
Currasson, G. (1936). Traite de Path. Exot. Vet. 2, 508.
Edmonds, C. R. & Walker, G.K. (1929). Diseases of Animals in Tropical Countries,
2nd edn., p. 345.
Edwards, J. T. (1927). Trans. Far East Assn. Trop. Med. 3, 596.
Folger. Quoted by Hutyra & Marek (1926) 1, 695.
Gaiger, S. H. & Davies, G. O. (1938). Vet. Path. & Bact., 2nd edn., London.
Henning, M. W. (1932). Animal Diseases in South Africa, p. 466.
Hutyra, F. & Marek, J. (1926). I. 483.
Joslen, F. Ann. Rept. C V. D.Bomb. 1903-04.
Law, J. (1906). Vet. Med. 4, 645.
Meissner, H. Quoted by Hutyra & Marek (1926). 1,489.
Miller, W. C. (1935). Black's Veterinary Dictionary, p. 260.
Moore, V. A. (1906). Pathology of Infectious Diseases of Animals, p. 388.
Nunn, J. A.(1885). Quart. Jour. Vet. Sc. in India, 3, 60.
Tang, F. F. & Wei, H. & Mc. Whirter, D. L. (1935). Jr. Path. & Bact. 40, 391-406.
—&
Edgar, J. (1936). Jr. Path. & Bact. 42, 45-51.
Turner, A. W. Campbell, A. D. & Dick, A. T. (1935). Aust. Vet. Jour. 11, 63-71.
Trydell, A. S. Ann. Rept. C. V. D. Bengal, 1905-06.
Woodruff, H. A. (1934). Wooldridge's Encyclopaedia of Veterinary Medicine and
Surgery 1, 177.
STUDIES IN THE QUALITY OF THE INDIAN AND THE
WESTERN TABLE BUTTERS
BY
ZAL R. KOTHAVALLA, B.AG., ANI HUS. (BOM.), B.Sc. AGRIC. (EDIN.),
N.D.D. (SCOT.)
Imperial Dairy Expert, Bangalore
AND
NOSHIR S. DOCTOR, B.Sc.
Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
(Received for publication on 14th October 1938)
THE quality of table butter manufactured in this country is often adversely
criticised by foreign visitors who are used to a particular flavour in butter,
available in their own country. For this, some blame the skill of the Indian
butter manufacturer and assert that the art of butter making is very defective
in this country. Whereas, there are others who, with a view to justify the
expansion of the trade of imported butter into India, assert that the quality
of the butter produced depends on the species of animals obtainable in different
countries, not to speak of the kind of food taken by the animals.
The authors therefore set about to investigate how far each of the above
assertions was correct and if necessary assign reasons as far as possible for the
difference which may be found to exist. In order to meet the criticism that
the art of butter-making is little known in this country, the butter-manufac-
turing part of the experiment was put in charge of one of the members of the
staff of the Imperial Dairy Institute, Bangalore, who has experience of making
butter not only under various conditions in India, but also had training under
expert butter manufacturers at some of the best butter-making factories and
creameries in Great Britain and Ireland. To meet the grounds regarding
the kind of animal and the food given to it, it was arranged to obtain milk from
herds of one Indian and one foreign breeds of cows and from buffaloes main-
tained, fed and handled under the same conditions and at the same place. The
results described below are of a preliminary nature as more detailed investiga-
tions into the nature of the fatty acids in the milk fat of the different classes
of animals are still being carried out.
Butter has been graded for years by the skilled sense of taste and smell of
commercial and official judges on an arbitrary standard, factors like flavour,
body, salt, colour and packaging being assigned numerical values according to
their importance, flavour (taste and smell) scoring the highest. The arbitrary
grading standard adopted in America is on the numerical basis of 45 points for
( 151 )
ZAL R. KOTHAVALLA AND N. S. DOCTOR. 153
It is quite possible that further investigation will tend to indicate that this
chemical will share with diacetyl some importance as a source of aroma of
butter.
The quantitative determination of diacetyl, the most important ingredient
from the standpoint of butter flavour, is based upon the most important reac-
tion in which diacetyl reacts with hydroxylamine hydrochloride and nickel
chloride with the formation of a red precipitate of nickel salt of dimethyl-
glyoxime. Very recently Pien, Blaisse and Martin (1936) have developed
quite a new colorimetric technique for detection and quantitative determina-
tion of diacetyl.
It would thus appear that it is now possible to make chemical determina-
tion of aroma in butter and butter cultures and that the production of diacetyl,
an important ingredient responsible for fine butter flavour, is quite dependent
on the method of ripening the cream and its churning into butter.
EXPERIMENTAL
To avoid all possible sources of errors, this investigation was conducted
under well controlled conditions. Two breeds of cows, Sindhi for the Indian
breed and Jersey for the European, and the Surti breed of buffaloes were select-
ed for the experiment. Both the breeds of cows were available in the herd
maintained at the Dairy Farm of the Government House at Ganeshkhind and
were made available for the purpose of this investigation through the courtesy
of His Excellency Lord Brabourne, the then Governor of Bombay. The
Surti buffaloes were obtained for the purpose of the experiment from the Civil
Dairy Farm, Kirkee, through the courtesy of the Principal, Agricultural Col-
lege, Poona. This was done to ensure uniform climatic and environmental
conditions for all the three classes of animals. Due attention was given to
their methods of housing, cleaning, exercising etc., which were maintained
strictly identical in the case of the two breeds of cows. This, however, could
not be done with the buffaloes as they could not adapt themselves to the new
surroundings at the Government House Dairy Farm where they had to be re-
moved for the purpose of the experiment. Their milk had therefore to be
brought to the Government House Dairy Farm to be converted into butter.
As the Jersey stock available in India was limited, only four animals of
each breed were selected for the experiment. All the animals were kept on
the same identical ration for eight weeks before the experimental samples were
collected.
Milking, separation of cream, churning, etc., were carried out simultaneous-
-y under conditions which were conducive to best results. Scrupulous care
was taken to keep off all other kinds of flavour due to feed, vessel, churn, etc.
C
154
Quality of Indian and Western Table Butters
To have a critical comparative study of Indian and Western butters
equal quantities of milk from each breed were collected every day and the
cream separated immediately and allowed to stand at 40° F. without addition
of any external butter culture ' starter ' till sufficient quantity was collected to
yield a churning. The percentage of fat in all the samples of
cream before churning was 30 to 33. The rate of churning was about 45 to
60 revolutions per minute, and the temperature of churning was maintained
at 52°—56°F. The butter was worked four times on each occasion. The
other details regarding the out-turn of butter are given below.
Three lots of samples of butter from each breed were prepared under the
above mentioned controlled conditions at intervals of a week as shown in Table
I below.
TABLE I
First lot of samples of butter (1st week)
1st day
.
.
2nd day . .
3rd day
.
.
Sindhi
.
.
Jersey
.
.
.
Buffaloes
.
.
.
Sindhi
.
.
.
Jersey . . .
Buffaloes . . .
Sindhi . . .
Jersey . . .
Buffaloes . . .
Lb. of milk
M
14.8
14.8
..
11.0
11.0
12.0
14.8
14.8
12.0
E
11.0
11.0
..
10.0
10.0
12.0
10.0
10.0
12.0
Fat per cent
M
3.6
4.4
..
4.5
4.6
8.0
4.1
4.3
8.1
E
6.0
5.7
..
5.3
5.8
8.4
6.0
5.6
8.7
Lb. of cream
M
1.1
1.4
..
1.3
1.0
1.12
1.5
1.5
1.12
E
1.6
1.6
..
1.0
1.0
1.14
1.0
1.0
1.13
Cream kept for 72½ hours at 40°F.
Buffalo cream kept for 48 hours at 40°F.
Acidity at the time of churning
(Buffalo
0.19 per cent
0.18 per cent)
Yield of butter{
Sindhi
......
Jersey
......
Buffaloes
lb.
3
3
4
oz.
8
4
0
ZAL R. KOTHAVALLA AND N. S.
DOCTOR.
155
Second lot of samples of butter (2nd week)
1st day
.
.
2nd day
.
.
Sindhi . . .
Jersey . . .
Buffaloes . . .
Sindhi . . .
Jersey . . .
Buffaloes . . .
Lb. of milk
M
14.0
14.0
8.0
13.8
13.8
8.0
E
9.8
9.8
8.0
13.8
13.8
12.0
Fat per cent
M
4.5
4.2
7.3
4.6
4.5
7.4
E
5.7
5.7
8.0
6.0
5.8
7.9
Lb. of cream
M
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.4
1.4
1.1
E
1.3
1.2
1.2
1.6
1.8
1.11
Cream kept for 48 hours at 40°F.
Cream acidity . . . . . . . .
Yield of butter {
Sindhi . . . . . .
Jersey . . . . . .
Buffalo . . . . . .
0.18
lb.
2
2
2
per
oz.
8
8
7
Third lot of samples of butter (3rd week)
1 st day
.
.
2nd day
.
.
Sindhi
.
.
.
Jersey
.
.
.
Buffaloes . . .
Sindhi . . .
Jersey . . .
Buffaloes . . .
Lb. of milk
M
19.8
19.8
12.0
14.0
14.0
12.0
E
11.0
11.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
Fat per cent
M
3.9
4.1
7.0
4.2
4.5
6.5
E
5.5
5.5
8.0
5.7
5.8
7.4
Lb. of cream
M
1.9
1.1
1.7
1.3
1.4
1.6
E
1.5
1.4
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.9
Cream kept for 48 hours at 40°F.
Cream acidity
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Yield of butter
(Buffalo
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sindhi . . . . . .
Jersey . . . . . .
Buffalo . . . . . .
0.21
0.20
lb.
3
3
3
per cent
per cent)
oz.
0
0
12
N. B.—It might be explained that the above quantities of milk in all cases were
obtained from the milk of the whole herds, but only limited quantities were available for
these investigations as the milk was in demand for other purposes.
156
Quality of Indian and Western Table Butters
The samples of butter, immediately on preparation, were put into tins
and the butter hardened in a frigidiare before despatch. The tins were then
packed in ordinary wooden cases stuffed with sawdust. On arrival at Banga-
lore, the samples were tested for their quality taking the usual factors of
flavour, body, colour etc., into consideration as shown in Table II below (and
stored in cold at —4°C. for further study).
TABLE II
Grading of the butter samples
First lot.—The samples on receipt were preserved in a cold store at a tem-
perature of 48°—50°F. for 2 days before grading.
Jersey butter.—Colour deep yellow—body firm on opening but
fast began to get soft. Flavour very subdued on opening but
gradually improved on aeration. Taste pleasant and appe-
tising. Butter melted quickly in mouth and became semi.
liquid on exposure to atmosphere.
Sindhi butter.—Colour nice straw yellow—Body fairly hard and remain-
ed firm after opening. Flavour not as good as the Jersey's on
opening but improved on exposure. Taste pleasant although
slightly oily in feel to palate compared to Jersey. Butter did
not melt quickly in the mouth and maintained good ' stand-
ing up ' quality even on exposure to atmospheric temperature.
Buffalo (Surti) butter.—Colour light ivory yellow—Body nice and firm
and remained firm for a longer time than the other two after
exposure. Flavour well marked but not as appetising as the
other two and more oily in feel to the palate than Sindhi
butter. Butter took some time to melt in mouth and remained
hard and firm when exposed to atmospheric temperature.
General remarks.—Jersey butter was a shade better in flavour than the
Sindhi butter and the latter a little better than the buffalo but-
ter till the butter was maintained under cool conditions. This
quality, however, disappeared in the case of Jersey butter as
the butter remained exposed to atmospheric conditions. Under
ordinary conditions Sindhi scored best in this respect. In
firmness of body and texture, the Sindhi maintained the required
degree of firmness although buffalo butter remained harder for
a longer time. Jersey lost its ' standing up ' quality soon after
opening and became pasty and semi-liquid when exposed to at-
mospheric conditions. Jersey could maintain a slight superiority
in quality as long as it remained under refrigeration.