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78
For your information I may say that when a case of
Anthrax occurs the farm comes under the control of the Board
of Agriculture. I was informed by Dr. Wallis that the farmer
was not registered as a dairyman, and that the farm generally
was in a bad condition.
Isolated cases of Anthrax have been known to exist on a
farm, and, when the body has not been opened, the spread of
the disease to other animals has rarely occurred.
It is satisfactory to note that the dairyman in Lewisham
to whom the milk was consigned took immediate steps to stop
all supplies from the farm in question. Fortunately no ill
effect resulted in our district.
The following is the report of the bacteriologist upon
the sample of milk taken from the churn at Forest Hill:—
"Neither pus nor tubercle bacilli could be detected
"in the centrifugalised deposit and cream of this milk. A
"fair number of streptococci were present, but in the
"absence of pus they are probably adventitious and not
"of pathologic significance. There is, of course, the
"possibility that the milk from one cow with a bovine
"mastitis may be mixed and so diluted by normal milk
"that its detection in a mixed sample is almost impossible.
"The milk has been specially examined for anthrax
" bacilli, but with negative results."
The recital of the above facts is a good example of a
danger which may occur at any time owing, in some instances,
to the indifferent and not infrequently entire absence of control
and safe sanitary supervision which exists in regard to daily
farms in many country districts. A grave danger probably
exists from the frequency with which milk from tuberculous
cows may be sent to London.