The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-06-10
TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE.
And the Danger of Its Transmission
to Man Through Milk.
A Paper Read Before the Academy of
Medicine by DIR. George H. Bailey.

of Health we reproduce paper on
tuberculosis in cows recently read before
the Academy of Medicine by DR.. George
H. Bailey, one of the Maine cattle com
N ission.
Certainly nobody has painted in strong
er colors the danger of tuberculosis in
cattle or pointed out more vigorously the
need of stringent precaution against in.
lection from milk than does DR.. Bailey
in this paper. Those who believe the pre-
sent agitation is mere "scare'' should
study DR.. Bailey's strong presen tation of
the case.
The identity of tuberculosis in mankind
and domestic animals being fully demon
strated as being highly infectious, we
now know that it is communicable from
ANNALS to animals, from animals to man
kind, and from mankind to animals in
return. Millions of the germs are in the
air we breathe and in the milk we drink,
so that inhalation, ingestion, incubation
and heredity, all contribute to dissent
nate the malady. Man is also liable to
receive from the lower animals and to
communicate to them other diseases, as
hydrophobia, variola, CHAMBERS, syphilis
and cholera.
AS it would be trifling with time to
discuss the imminent danger of inhaling
the dry dust of the sputa from consump-
tive men and animals, pass at once to
the consideration of the danger from milk
the great food product of the human race.
l assume that the first thing that ever
passed our lips was milk; either derived
from our good mothers, or the family
cow" and while we shall always retain a
reverence for both, (perhaps not equally
dlvlded) they will always remain asso-
clated with our rock-a-bye-baby days,
while life will be far too short to ever
efface from our memories the nursery
story of the s'cow that jumped over the
moon which acroabtic performance still
remains the the best on record. The
ordinary inspection of milk brought into
our city, demands that Its average cOmpo-
sition shall be water 81 per cent and solid
13 per cent, the solids including fat,
casein, milk sugar, albumen and as the
casein and albumen containing nitrogen,
of special value in cheese making and
the fat for butter. The water contains
most everything from po1lywogs to
bacteria, which Immediately after milk
ing may vary from zero to over 10, 600, 900
in single cubic inch of milk; depend
ing almost entirely upon the temperature
at which the milk is kept The influence
of temperature on the growth of bacteria
10 well hlAOWi1y anu tt1A lllllh ollOulu DC
kept below 80 degrees E. until sterilized
or consumed. Judging from tests thus
far made abroad, city milk which con-
tainS5nOt more than three or four millions
bacteria per cubic centimeter may be re-
garded as exceptionally good for European
cities; while considerably over two hun
dred distinct types of ordinary milk
up to the present time. Milk as it exists
in the udder Of healthy COW is germ
free, that is, it Is practically sterile; but
the milk that comes to the consumer con-
tains large number of living germs
DR.. Freeman of New York, pathologist
tosthe Founding Hospital, in the Medi-
cal Record, gave q practical demonstra-
ton of the extent of this contamination
Three Petrol plates, three and one half
inches in diameter, containing layer of
sterile nutriment gelatine were exposed
for two minutes each on gentleman S
farm near New York. One was exposed
out of doors, a second in the barn, and a
third under COW just in front of the pail
during milking. Subsequent examina-
ton showed that the plate exposed out of
doors contained six bacteria, while that
exposed in the barn received one hundred
and eleven bacteria, and that exposed I'M
der the COW received one thousand, eight
hundred bacteria. If the latter number
will fall from the belly of COW during
milking in circle three and one half
inches in diameter in two minutes, one
can easily appreciate the immense num-
Der that will fall into an ordinary milk
pail during the whole period of milking
and this emphasizes the fact that the
great secret of obtaining proper supply
of milk. is to have healthy cow, and to
keep that COW clean.
DR.. Freeman summarizes the diseases
that may be conveyed by milk as first,
those in which the pathogenic micro-or-
ganisms which are introduced into the
milk are conveyed from the body of the
diseased COW, as tuberculosis, anthrax,
and acute enteritis. Second, those in
which the pathogenic micro organisms are
| introduced into the milk from some other
source either during or after milking, as
| cholera, typohid fever, and diphtheria.
| Third, those caused by milk which con,
| tains poisonous agents developed by bac.
terial growth.
| Maine produces approximately So, 900,
900 gallons of milk per year, and makes
about II GOO, 900 pounds of butter, while
New York City alone consumes more than
seven millions of gallons of milk every
year, and the produce of the United States
is five billion gallons annually. How
much of this milk contains germs of
death" may well challenge our attention
and best efforts to suppress
| DR.. Gutman of Chicago reports, Gin IS
specimens of milk inspected, in only one
Of them was it possible to demonstrate the
presence of the tubercle bacillus micro
scopically, but in 3S injections of the
same milk in animals, we had transmits.
sion of tuberculosis demonstrated siz
times.
Bollinger showed that pure culture Of
tubercle bacilli gives positive results in
incubation experiments in a dilution OF
one to 400, 600; thus showing that the
milk may be infectious when the bacilli
are so scant as to be undiscoverable with
out an extremely exhaustive examination
DR.. Williams, M. D., of Massachusetts
says 81 have seen many cases of tubercu
lar disease from milk, mostly in hand fed
babies of perfectly healthy parentage, de.
veloping tables mesenterica, phthisis, and
tubercular meningitis
Dr. Hollock, M. D., of South Carolina,
writes of case where a strong, vigorous
child without a trace of disease in its an.
oestry, lost it's mother at birth, and was
sucked by woman we'll advanced in
pulmonary consumption in opposition tc
his remonstrances. The child was ailine
ever after, and died of tuberculosis.
pronounce this case of tuberculosis be
| ing transmitted through the milk of the
woman who nursed the child.
| DIR. Stang, M. D. reports in his prac-
go Ir-a11 HauaIOraG fua-