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18
reasonable regard to cleanliness, and the tubercle bacillus will
suffer no material damage. The existing regulations are
totally inadequate for the purpose in view, viz.:—healthy
cattle and a pathogenic germ free milk.
The breath of cattle suffering from tuberculous lungs will
infect the milk from aerial transmission, and the particles of
hay and straw which find their way into the milk are vehicles
for tubercle germs. To these sources of infection must be
added the likelihood of milk contamination from dirty teats
and udders, from dirty milkmen with manure-begrimed hands,
and from the aerial currents which pervade infected cowsheds.
Cows suffering from obvious tuberculosis of the udder are
likely to be detected and weeded out, but cows with early
tuberculosis of the lungs without wasting, and those which
display no symptoms whatever of the infection, are equally
dangerous, and perhaps even more so, because thev are not
found out.
Therefore milch cows destined to produce the public
milk supply should be kept scrupulously clean, they should
have a proper environment and be supplied with plenty of
fresh air and sunlight, and above all things should be healthy.
To safeguard the Public Health every such milch cow in the
District ought to be branded and licensed, and a record kept
of its health.
Moreover those persons suffering from any tuberculous
disorder likely to be conveyed to cattle or to milk, should
not be permitted to tend milch cattle, or to milk them, or to
engage in the milk trade in any capacity.
The Council should, I think, pay serious attention to the
following facts. Tubercle bacilli have been detected in a
small percentage of samples of ordinary commercial fresh
milk. A very large percentage of such samples contain
organisms which occur in cows' excreta. According to recent
researches of the American Government it is unsafe to use
the milk of any tuberculous cow no matter where or what
the lesion. Veterinary surgeons in the present state of
knowledge cannot by the ordinary means of examination at
their disposal detect all forms of tuberculosis; even when it