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live, members of which may possibly be suffering from some contagious
disease. Thus there is no security whatever that the milk may not be
the vehicle by which disease may spread. Now, milk is a highly complex
organic fluid, the constituents of which are closely analogous to
those of the human body: thus it may serve for the development and
multiplication of disease germs. We know from sad experience that
water will carry the germs of cholera and enteric fever; and so
certainly will milk. Indeed, so absorbent is this fluid that it is
customary in some places when game is hung to acquire its peculiar
flavour, to place a pan of milk upon the floor of the larder. This takes
up the effluvium, and becomes itself so foul in one night that cats and
dogs will not touch it.
Recent experiences at Eagley, Bath, and Burnley, seem to prove
that when epidemics are spread through the agency of milk, they are
particularly virulent.
In short, milk can be the vehicle of contagion in three ways: ist,
by direct communication of the contagion, either by the water used
for purposes of adulteration, or by the vessels in which it is stored
being cleansed with impure water; 2nd, by the absorption of the
contagion by the exposure of the milk to deleterious gases; 3rd, the
milk itself may be bad as the secretion of diseased cows. In a late
number of the Lancet, the following article occurs referring to this
subject:—
" The ease with which milk receives and carries infection is illustrated by the
absolute and well-known necessity for purity of air and perfect cleanliness in dairy
operations. With this knowledge before us, it is impossible to help asking why
dairies are not placed under inspection ? Public houses, slaughter houses, common
lodging houses, and alkali works, are all under inspection, with manifest advantage
to the public, and with no real injury to the owners. The respectable dairyman would
have nothing to fear, and would suffer no inconvenience from the occasional visits of
an inspector, and his customers would be saved from a terrible risk. In large towns,
special officers must, of course, be appointed, while in rural districts the work could
be done by the sanitary inspector. We believe the result of such a reform would be
an important diminution in zymotic diseases, for it is becoming evident that milk is
responsible for a great deal more of this kind Of mischief than is commonly supposed.
For one epidemic traced to milk, there are probably many which attract less attention,
but to which, if closely studied, a similar origin might be assigned."