Recent Developments in Public Hygiene. xxvii 



at or near the dairy, from wliich contamination of milk in 

 the way usually accepted, could have taken place. Dr. 

 Buchanan, the head of the Medical Department under the 

 Privy Council, accepted the evidence as conclusive, the 

 medical world was taken by storm, and the " Hendon cow 

 disease " was everywhere talked of as the clearly established 

 source of an outbreak of milk scarlatina. It seemed proper 

 that the veterinary authorities should make an independent 

 inquiry, and the services of Professor Crookshank, a 

 recognised authority on questions of bacteriology, were 

 engaged. In the reports which have since been issued, it is 

 stated that the so-called Hendon disease is well known to 

 cow keepers and veterinary surgeons, who describe it as 

 cow-pox, and the experiments made by Professor Crook- 

 shank were considered by him to establish this belief It 

 was further stated that there had been scarlet fever in a 

 house not veiy far from the daiiy, and that there had been 

 constant communication between the two places. The very 

 remarkable fact further came out, that though the milk was 

 considered to have caused scarlet fever among persons 

 living in London, it had no such effect among the persons 

 living at or near the dairy, who regularly consumed it. 



It was further stated that, in two adjacent dairies, the 

 cows suffered from a similar disease to those at Hendon, but 

 that there was never any suspicion that the milk from these 

 had caused scarlet fever. So the question at present stands, 

 after a good deal of heated controversy ; and on a review of 

 the whole evidence, it seems as if Drs. Klein and Power 

 had been somewhat hasty in coming to conclusions, and the 

 latest reports of outbreaks of scarlet fever, occurring more or 

 less in coincidence with the occurrence of signs of illness 

 among the cows supplying milk, are by no means conclusive. 

 The question has great practical, as well as theoretical 

 interest; for if such a dangerous disease as scarlet fever may 

 be produced by the milk o± cows suffering from some kind 

 of disease, it is of the utmost importance that the nature and 

 symptoms of that disease should be clearly defined, in order 



