DAIRY MEETING. I93 



persons we can control if we insist on only considering a per- 

 son well and safe to release from quarantine when the germ of 

 the disease has been found to be absent by bacteriological exam- 

 ination. This we do in the case of diphtheria, and once in a 

 while in the case of typhoid fever. This factor is one that can 

 be eliminated in the case of diseases whose causative agent is 

 known to be a bacterium. 



Not only can the person carrying the germs of disease infect 

 milk himself, but the attendants on the sick person will get the 

 germs of the disease on their hands and clothing, and, unless 

 they are very careful to sterilize their hands and clothes, they 

 may carry the infection to the milk, if they afterwards handle it. 

 Any person or thing that has touched, or been touched by the 

 sick person or his discharges can carry the germs of the dis- 

 ease to whatever it may later touch. Experience has shown 

 this to be a very fruitful means of spreading disease. It can 

 be avoided by allowing no person who has been in contact with 

 the sick patient, or in contact with any of his possessions to 

 have anything to do in handling milk. 



We have thus examined the human agency in transmitting 

 disease through milk, and have seen that the possibility of in- 

 fection from this source enters at all stages of the handhng of 

 the milk from the time it is drawn from the cow to the time 

 it is consumed. Some of the danger from this source, and in 

 fact the greatest part of it, can be eliminated by having only 

 healthy individuals handle the milk, and by allowing no one 

 to come in contact with it who has been in contact with a case 

 of infectious disease. The lesser part of the danger is due to 

 the incubation and carrier cases of the disease. The incubation 

 case cannot be eliminated with our present knowledge, but 

 typhoid carriers and diphtheria carriers can be eliminated by 

 refusing to release the sick person from quarantine until bacteri- 

 ological examination has shown them free from the germs of 

 these diseases. This is a procedure that should always be 

 done in the case of diphtheria. It is too expensive to do in 

 all typhoid cases, but it should be right to demand it in the case 

 of any person who is to handle a food of as wide distribution 

 as is milk. 



Just a word now in regard to the class of persons who make 

 the greatest use of milk. There is probably no single food, out- 

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