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36
ture, nothing abnormal could be detected and herein, as I
pointed out, " lies a danger to the public, inasmuch as ic will be
difficult to satisfy cow keepers that there can be anything serious
the matter with cows in such circumstances; so that they will
be likely, until instructed and convinced, to continue to mix and
sell the milk of cows affected with the specific contagious disease
in question, in ordinary course of business, despite the provision
in the Dairies Order which is directed to prevent the milk of
diseased cows being mixed with other milk, or sold or used as
human food." Singularly enough, however, Dr. Klein's investigations
went to show that the milk itself, as found in the cow's
udder, is not infective. The germs which produce the human
disease are, in his view, conveyed to the pail in the form of
scales and exuded lymph, in the act of milking, by pressure of
the milker's hands on the sores on the teats ; just as the
" peeling" skin of the hands of a person convalescing from
scarlet fever, may be (and often has been) rubbed off, and fall into
the pail in the act of milking, so giving rise to scarlet fever in
susceptible consumers of the unboiled milk. Once in the pail, the
infective matter—whether derived from the cow, in the one
case, or from the milker, in the other case—finds in the milk a
fluid adapted for the " cultivation," or multiplication by
development and growth, of the specific organism, a small
quantity of which, from a single cow, may suffice to contaminate
the mixed milk of a dairy, and so to infect great numbers of
susceptible persons. It is unnecessary to expatiate on the
importance of the subject, and it is satisfactory to know that the
Medical Officer to the Board proposes that a portion of the
grant annually made by Parliament for the scientific purposes
of the Board shall be allotted to further study of the relations
that exist between human scarlatina and diseases of animals.
We can all concur, moreover, in the view regarding Mr. Power
and Dr. Klein's reports, expressed by Dr. Buchanan, that " they
will properly form a starting-point for fresh observation and
experiment .... by all who have the opportunity of