T3E ANALYST. 249 ON D I S E A S E D M I L K . BY C. HEISCH, F.C.S. Read before the Society of Public Analysts, on 1st Hay, 1878. THE question of milk from diseased cows having been recently, for the second time, brought under my notice, both by the cases of Mr. Wiper, at Plumstead, and one sample received by myself from Hampstead, I am induced to lay before the society the details, not so much of the recent case (of which, beyond the microscopical appearances, I know nothing), as of two which came to me aome time since, of which, through the courtesy of the owner of the cows, I got a more than usually complete history, though some points were not as clear as could have been wished ; nevertheless, some features of the case were so peculiar and of such interest as to be worthy of note.First, with respect to the recent case. The milk presented no peculiar appearance; the cream rose in the ordinary way, and had the ordinary colour. On examining a drop under the microscope I found numerous bodies similar to those deecribed by Nr. Wynter Blyth, in his paper read before the Society and published in its Proceedings* (which, for convenience, I Rhall speak of as Blyth’s bodies), pus corpuscles, blood corpuscles, and pieces of skin strongly tinged with blood.Total Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 *32 Solids not Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-66 Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.67 Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -65 Cream 10 per cent.by volume. Chemical analysis showed little peculiarity. Of this case I have no further history, the Vestry not yet baving made up its mind about prosecuting * Bee vol. 1, p. 239.250 THE ANALYST. On January 17th, 1876, I receiwd from a prirate client two samples of milk and one of cream, with the intimation that all the members of the family who used the milk had been ill, and it was believed the illness was caused by the milk.The cream was from a mixture of the milk of both the cows, which had yielded the samples of milk. No 1 gave the following results :- Total Solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1397 Solids not Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.61 Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 4-35 Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *71 Cream 12 per cent. by volume. Examined under the microscope, showed many Blyth’s bodies larger than those mentioned in his paper ; blood corpuscles and unmistakable blood bands in the green, when viewed in the spectroscope. All the foreign bodies rose to the surface with the cream, leaving the milk free. No.2 gave :-- Total solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.64 Solids not fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.64 Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -90 Ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -60 Microscope showed colostrum, or a body closely resembling it; blood corpuscles and blood bands in spectroscope.No. 3. The cream had a peculiar reddish colour, and showed all the above ap- pearances in a marked degree. I subsequently received the following particulars from the gentleman m7ho owned the corns :- Both cows had foot and mouth disease, not severely, in July, and to all appearance quite recovered; both were in calf. No. 2, a young cow, calved in August; the family being from home, all her cream was made into butter, and sent t o them; the skim milk being used by the servants.The butter milk was given to the pigs; as they had been suffering from foot and mouth disease, no particular notice was taken of its effect. Cow No. 1, an old one, calved on December 24th ; her milk was not used till January 1 lth. Two days after, the children and nurses using the new milk, and those members of the family who used cream, were attacked with symptoms strongly resembling severe influenza, were very feverish and suffered from great eoreness of the inside of the mouth, throat, and tongue, which were covered with small pustules.The servants, who took only the skim milk, were unaffected. One child, who for two days refused everything but water, got pretty well rid of her symptoms, but they returned as Boon as she began to use the milk.The use of the milk was then given up, and all bad symptoms disappeared. The samples of milk were then sent to me, and the results of the examination were as above given. The reason both milks were sent, though no mischief had been traced t o No. 2, was that the milk of the two cows had been mixed before using.On 24th January I received two more samples of milk from the same cows, which gave the following results :- No. 1.- No ill-effects were produced. Total Bolids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-77 Solids not fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-60 Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-17 Ad1 . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -68 The cream was very thick, of a slightly reddish colour. The microscope showed aTHE ANALYST. 25 1 ~ few of Blyth’s bodies, not so many as on the 17th, and the b1 visible. bands were scarcely The skim milk as before was quite free from abnormal substances. No. 2.- Total solids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.86 Solids not fat . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-82 Fat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.04 Ash... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -82 Microscope showed colostrum-like bodies and casts of the mammary glands, and blood bands were visible in spectroscope. The remarkable change in the character of this milk leads to the idea that first runnings had been sent in one case and last in the other, but the appearance of colostrum, or a body so like it as to be undistinguiehable from it, so long after calving is very remarkable.On February 1st 1 heard from the owner that they were again using the milk with no bad results. The case of cow No. 1, to which alone mischief was traced with anything like clezrness, seems t o be one of those in which disease after it has disappeared i n a pregnant animal re-appears in some form after confinement, sometimes the young animal being affected, and sometimes, as in this case, the milk ; but such a case raises the somewhat difficult question horn far a milkman can be held reponsible for selling milk containing all these abnormal constituents, and capable of creating so much mischief, if the cow from which it is obtained is apparently in perfect health ? It Todd seem as if no milk from a cow which has been ill during pregnancy ought t o be sold till it has been examined and found free from abnormal consituents.I n both these cases all the abnormal constituents rose with the cream, which was not the case either with the sample recently sent from Hampstead or with Mr. Wigner’s samples.