Huntsville gazette., 1882-11-11
Zymotic Diseases by MIX.
It is well known how the mammalian

1t is well known how the mammalian
offspring, though receiving no other
nourishment than the mothers milk,
rapidly increases in weight during the
first few months after birth. This
proves that milk contains all the ele-
ments necessary for building up the It's
sues of the young animal (and so IL
does), and that these must also be pres
ent in proper portions and in suitable
combinations (and 80 they are) to be
easily assimilated by the tender organs.
Milk, then, is simply solution OF the
young animals body as regards the
identity of all their chemical elements,
and also with reference to most of their
chemical compounds. If the foregoing
be admitted it follows that, just as a
child or adult is susceptible to be poi
soned with smallpox, scarlatina, or ty-
phoid virus, SO also, and in a much
higher degree, must milk, when exposed
to the same influence. Because the liv-
ing organism has vital force wherewith
to oppose the attacks of poisonous
germs, and just in proportion to the
great or little amount of that force con-
tanned in the organism will it be able
entirely to withstand or, being infected,
successfully to cope with them. But
milk is dead organic matter, and hav-
ing no vital force must be much more
favorable nest for the nurture of conta-
gia than even sickly organism.
That milk has also the peculiar prop
erty of imbibing various effluvia to a
great extent is well known to those ac-
customed to dairy management. There
are many articles liable to impart a
taste and odor to milk; boiled fish is
sure to injure the taste of the cream and
hasten the decomposition of the milk.
ANY meat which is the least bit tainted
will do the same. Onions, even from
another room, will give their taste to
the milk. So, also, will kerosene, tur-
pentine from the paint and varnishes,
the smoke of tobacco, and the smell OF
lime from plaster or whitewash. Fur
thermore, the additional physical prop.
erty of fluidity possessed by milk greatly
increases its fertility as a zymotic soil.
1t is familiar knowledge that the pres
ence of moisture is as necessary in fer
mentation and putrefaction as the pres
ence of nitrogen. This is well exempli-
fed in many processes for the preserva-
ton of animal tissues by the freezing or
subtraction of their water, and it is well
known that water is favorite dwelling
place of cholera, and typhoid poison.
Milk, which may thus be looked on as a
highly favorable soil for the propaga-
ton of contagious germs, may become
infected with zymotic poison, first, by
impure water; and, second, by impure
air.
In some barnvards you will find the
manure heap at one end and the water
pump at the other, and placed, not with
regard to the inclination of the surface
or the dip Of the underlying strata, but
so as to be ''handy." Sometimes these
manure heaps are also compost heaps,
into the composition of which enters not
only the excreta of the cattle, but also
all of the offal from the house and out
buildings. Here we have fostering
mass of organic matter, often so placed
that the fluid which works through it
will find its way into the well. Hence
it is easily seen how the water in farm
wells may become seriously contaminat-
ed with putrid organic matter. This is
more likely to take place during 3
drought, as then the wells frequently get
dry, or nearly so, and the proportion OF
organic matter TO the water must be
much higher than when the well is full /;
excepting, perhaps, at the beginning OF
wet weather, which follows drought,
when the amount of decayed matter
washed into the soil is the greatest. 1t
is unnecessary to say more on this point,
as all cases, and they are numerous, OF
tainted water supply are traceable to
one cause, namely, the infiltration OF
organic matter, call it liquid manure,
human excreta, or sewage, through
some defect in the drains, or from a
want of drains, or from the relative situ-
alton of the polluting and polluted SUBJ
stances.
1t is thus easy to see how the milk
may become contaminated with typhoid
virus. The cows may drink the tainted
water, which may cause condition OF
unhealthy milk, or the tainted water
may be Intentionally added to the milk
for the purpose OF. adulteration. But
from what is known of zomotic poisons
small quantity of such water left in
the vessels after washing may be suffi-
cient to infect the milk.-George 4. Stu.
art, in N. Y. Tribune