East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-07-25
(By E. F. Pernot, Bacteriologist, Ore
gon Agricultural College)

(By z. F. Pernot, Bacteriologist, Ore
gon Agricultural College.)
The great menace to public health
today is probably the milk supply.
A large percentage OF the COWS furn-
ishing milk for the market are tuber-
pass from the COW into the milk only
when there is a tuberculous process
in the mammary glands or milk
ducts. The main source of the in
vasion is the particles OF litter and
manure falling into the milk at milk
ing time.
1t is customary everywhere to strain
milk directly after milking. This is
done for no other purpose than to
remove litter and particles OF manure
from the milk
A single hair dropping from the
COW into the milk, II soiled with ma
nure, will carry with II from one to
three thousand germs, and a particle
OF manure barely visible to the nak-
ed eye will carry proportionately
more
When a COW is affected with pull
monary tuberculosis Consumption
in an advanced stage, one or both
lungs win be found to contain from
a pint to a quart Of yellow matter
(pus) that sets up an irritation caus-
ing the cow 10 cough. AS she does
not expectorate. the pus that is
coughed up is swallowed, eventually
passing out with the excreta- A.
quantity Of pus equaling the size of
a thlmble will contain thousands and
thousands OF the living tubercle ba-
cilli AS the gastric fluirs and diges-
tive tract of the COW do not kill the
tubercle bacilli. they pass to the ex-
creta, bedding and hair OF the COW,
thence into the milk bucket and to
the consumer.
The greatest danger of contamina-
tion lies in the uncleanly methods
OF milking as commonly practlced.
AS a rule most mixers drink milk.
II they could only see each organism
that they allow to get into the milk
they would surely adopt more san
itary methods. The tubercle bacil-
lus measures about three twenty-fiv
thousandths of an inch in length and
five ten thousandths OF an inch in
diameter. No stralner can remove
such small bodies from milk, and
the smallest particle OF excreta can
conceal thousands OF them.
The tubercle bacillI usually grow
slowly in the human body. sometimes
remaining for long periods of time
without developing and yet retain |
their vitality. Milk from tuberculous
cows is especially dangerous for in
fants, as the organisms may give
rise to tubercular processes years at !
terwards. II tuberculosis developed
quickly, as diphtheria, scarlet fever
or smallpox. the source Of infection !
could be more easily traced, but it |
does not, and for that reason II is not
SO much feared, although more fatal.
The amount Of tuberculosis that ex-
lists is perfectly alarming. It is not
confined to the human race alone;
cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry are
afflicted with 1t, and the evidence
that We have proves the disease to
be communicable. In this enlighten-
ed age 1t would seem that everyone
would make an especial effort to
fight the disease and particularly to
keep the tubercle bacilli out of milk,
which forms such an important diet
for man and beast. 1t cannot be
too strongly impressed upon the minds
of everyone who handles milk that
when particles of manure or litter
fall into the milk, they in all prob
ability carry with them the deadly
germs Of tuberculosis, which unseen
are delivered to the innocent consum-
err. No man or woman would feed
child with milk in which they saw