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Bacteriology of Milk
REVIEWS.
as a general method of disposing of anthrax carcases. Burial would have to be condemned if there were any reason to think that this plan would in any considerable number of cases involve the deposition of anthrax spores in the soil. But it is a matter of certainty that, provided the burial is promptly carried out, the act involves nothing of the kind, and there is no evidence to show that in temperate climates this method of attempting to avert subsequent mischief is any less effectual than cremation. In short, we believe that the proposal to adopt destruction by fire or a high temperature as the general method of dealing with anthrax carcases in this country is impracticable, and it is unnecessary, because prompt burial of the intact carcase is comparatively easy to carry out in most places, and quite effectual as a means of ensuring the destruction of the anthrax bacilli present in the body of the dead animal. We hear that some Local Authorities have been a good deal perturbed because they found it well-nigh impossible to give effect to the suggestions with regard to cremation contained in the circular sent to them by the Board of Agriculture, and because they inferred that to continue to sanction burial as a means o( disposing of anthrax carcases would be to sow the seeds of future outbreaks. There is no occasion for any such anxiety. It is quite certain that if anthrax outbreaks are increasing the cause is not to be sought in the burial of animals dead of the disease, but in sources of infection that remain above ground.
Bacteriology of Milk. By Harold Swithinbank, of the Bacteriological Research Laboratory, Denham, and George Newman, M.D., F.R.S.E., D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, and formerly Demonstrator of Bacteriology in King's College, London. London: John Murray, 1903. Price 25s. TH)" conjoint authors of this work are to be congratulated on having conceived and carried into effect the idea of collecting into one volume all the scattered information with regard to the bacteriology of milk. The experience and researches of recent years have brought home even to the lay public the great importance of milk as a vehicle in the dissemination of human diseases, and" milk epidemics" constitute common ground on which medical men and veterinary surgeons are daily brought into contact. For these reasons it is obvious that anyone capable of producing a good textbook on the bacteriology of milk could count beforehand on obtaining a large circle of readers. The book now under notice is certainly not of the so-called "popular" type. This will immediately be apparent when we say that it is a ponderous
REVIEWS.
volume, extending to nearly 600 pages. To those who have no previous acquaintance with the subject it may appear strange that anyone, without being guilty of redundancy or repetition, could find matter relating to the bacteriology of milk to fill a volume of this size. Nevertheless it may safely be said that the work which Mr Swithinbank and Dr Newman have produced owes nothing of its size to either redundancy or repetition. That, however, is not to say that it might not with advantage have been made smaller, by omitting to deal with some points which, although they fall quite naturally under the title selected for the work, might perhaps have been left out without exposing it to a charge of incompleteness. The opening chapter is devoted to some general conditions afiecting bacteria in milk, such as its general properties and composition, the physiology of lactation in the cow, fodder and its effect oli milk, etc. Chapters II. and III. deal with the technique of bacteriological examination of milk, and are followed by a chapter in which the examination of air and water in relation to milk supply is described. The matter of these three chapters is excellent, but it is questionable whether it would not have been better to deal more briefly with these subjects, which are, of course, discussed in all the text-books on bacteriology. The succeeding three chapters deal with the bacteriology of milk from what may be called the economic standpoint. The remainder of the book, amounting to two· thirds of the whole, is devoted to the pathological aspects of milk bacteriology, and this is at once the most original and the most valuable part of the work. The exigencies of space en the present occasion will not permit us to outline, or even to mention, the whole of the important subjects that are discussed in these final chapters, but we may say that nothing connected with milk as a factor in the causation of disease has escaped notice. Tuberculous milk naturally comes in for a large share of attention, as do also milk-borne epidemics of scarlatina, diphtheria, sorethroat, and typhoid. The control of the milk supply by the State and by private enterprise are also dealt with at considerable length. Lastly, we must not omit to mention that the book is illustrated by 33 plates and 35 smaller figures in the text. The work is certain to have a large sale among medical officers of health, . and no veterinary surgeon who has to do with the inspection of milk or dairy cows can afford to be without it.
Surgical and Obstetrical Operations for Veterinary Students and Practitioners. By W. L. Williams, Professor in the State Veterinary College, New York, U.S.A. Pp. 110. I1Iustrated with thirty-four plates and fourteen figures. Published by the author. THIS small work appears to be a revised and somewhat amplified version of Pfeiffer's (University of Giessen) Operationskursus, as translated by Professor Williams, and published about three years ago. In many ways the second edition is better than the first. The new book has been enlarged, and its illustrations have been increased and improved. Additional matter is represented by ovariotomy in the cow, bitch, and cat, by nine embryotomy operations, and by a new (vide preface) operation for pollevil-of which the remark may be permitted that careful scrutiny of the details gives no clue to newness. Arytenectomy now replaces Merillat's operation for roaring-" arytenoidyraphy"-unattractive in name and apparently of small value in practice. Staphylotomy, as an exploratory operation in pharyngeal disease, has been retained, though its performance in the horse is seldom or never justifiable.
as a general method of disposing of anthrax carcases. Burial would have to be condemned if there were any reason to think that this plan would in any considerable number of cases involve the deposition of anthrax spores in the soil. But it is a matter of certainty that, provided the burial is promptly carried out, the act involves nothing of the kind, and there is no evidence to show that in temperate climates this method of attempting to avert subsequent mischief is any less effectual than cremation. In short, we believe that the proposal to adopt destruction by fire or a high temperature as the general method of dealing with anthrax carcases in this country is impracticable, and it is unnecessary, because prompt burial of the intact carcase is comparatively easy to carry out in most places, and quite effectual as a means of ensuring the destruction of the anthrax bacilli present in the body of the dead animal. We hear that some Local Authorities have been a good deal perturbed because they found it well-nigh impossible to give effect to the suggestions with regard to cremation contained in the circular sent to them by the Board of Agriculture, and because they inferred that to continue to sanction burial as a means o( disposing of anthrax carcases would be to sow the seeds of future outbreaks. There is no occasion for any such anxiety. It is quite certain that if anthrax outbreaks are increasing the cause is not to be sought in the burial of animals dead of the disease, but in sources of infection that remain above ground.
Bacteriology of Milk. By Harold Swithinbank, of the Bacteriological Research Laboratory, Denham, and George Newman, M.D., F.R.S.E., D.P.H., Medical Officer of Health of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury, and formerly Demonstrator of Bacteriology in King's College, London. London: John Murray, 1903. Price 25s. TH)" conjoint authors of this work are to be congratulated on having conceived and carried into effect the idea of collecting into one volume all the scattered information with regard to the bacteriology of milk. The experience and researches of recent years have brought home even to the lay public the great importance of milk as a vehicle in the dissemination of human diseases, and" milk epidemics" constitute common ground on which medical men and veterinary surgeons are daily brought into contact. For these reasons it is obvious that anyone capable of producing a good textbook on the bacteriology of milk could count beforehand on obtaining a large circle of readers. The book now under notice is certainly not of the so-called "popular" type. This will immediately be apparent when we say that it is a ponderous
REVIEWS.
volume, extending to nearly 600 pages. To those who have no previous acquaintance with the subject it may appear strange that anyone, without being guilty of redundancy or repetition, could find matter relating to the bacteriology of milk to fill a volume of this size. Nevertheless it may safely be said that the work which Mr Swithinbank and Dr Newman have produced owes nothing of its size to either redundancy or repetition. That, however, is not to say that it might not with advantage have been made smaller, by omitting to deal with some points which, although they fall quite naturally under the title selected for the work, might perhaps have been left out without exposing it to a charge of incompleteness. The opening chapter is devoted to some general conditions afiecting bacteria in milk, such as its general properties and composition, the physiology of lactation in the cow, fodder and its effect oli milk, etc. Chapters II. and III. deal with the technique of bacteriological examination of milk, and are followed by a chapter in which the examination of air and water in relation to milk supply is described. The matter of these three chapters is excellent, but it is questionable whether it would not have been better to deal more briefly with these subjects, which are, of course, discussed in all the text-books on bacteriology. The succeeding three chapters deal with the bacteriology of milk from what may be called the economic standpoint. The remainder of the book, amounting to two· thirds of the whole, is devoted to the pathological aspects of milk bacteriology, and this is at once the most original and the most valuable part of the work. The exigencies of space en the present occasion will not permit us to outline, or even to mention, the whole of the important subjects that are discussed in these final chapters, but we may say that nothing connected with milk as a factor in the causation of disease has escaped notice. Tuberculous milk naturally comes in for a large share of attention, as do also milk-borne epidemics of scarlatina, diphtheria, sorethroat, and typhoid. The control of the milk supply by the State and by private enterprise are also dealt with at considerable length. Lastly, we must not omit to mention that the book is illustrated by 33 plates and 35 smaller figures in the text. The work is certain to have a large sale among medical officers of health, . and no veterinary surgeon who has to do with the inspection of milk or dairy cows can afford to be without it.
Surgical and Obstetrical Operations for Veterinary Students and Practitioners. By W. L. Williams, Professor in the State Veterinary College, New York, U.S.A. Pp. 110. I1Iustrated with thirty-four plates and fourteen figures. Published by the author. THIS small work appears to be a revised and somewhat amplified version of Pfeiffer's (University of Giessen) Operationskursus, as translated by Professor Williams, and published about three years ago. In many ways the second edition is better than the first. The new book has been enlarged, and its illustrations have been increased and improved. Additional matter is represented by ovariotomy in the cow, bitch, and cat, by nine embryotomy operations, and by a new (vide preface) operation for pollevil-of which the remark may be permitted that careful scrutiny of the details gives no clue to newness. Arytenectomy now replaces Merillat's operation for roaring-" arytenoidyraphy"-unattractive in name and apparently of small value in practice. Staphylotomy, as an exploratory operation in pharyngeal disease, has been retained, though its performance in the horse is seldom or never justifiable.