xxviii Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



that precautions may be taken. Its identification, too, 

 might lead to important results, by bringing nearer the 

 probability of attaining some system of prevention analogous 

 to vaccination against small-pox. But another very import- 

 ant point is also raised. If scarlatina can actually be 

 produced in this way, it will be necessary to go back and 

 review the evidence, as to the mode of production of 

 former milk epidemics. Were they really due, as supposed, 

 to contamination of the milk with infecting particles from 

 a scarlet fever patient ? In that way, indeed, the whole 

 question of the spread of disease by means of contaminated 

 milk is again brought up for open discussion. The effect 

 has been to call forth a quantity of evidence in opposition 

 to the view that scarlatina is readily produced by con- 

 taminated milk. In the " Report on Eruptive Diseases of 

 the Teats and Udders in Cows," recently issued by the 

 Agricultural Department, there is given in an appendix 

 a report by Dr. Hime, on his observations in Bradford 

 during a very severe epidemic of scarlet fever in 1887 

 He narrates a number of instances of scarlet fever occurring 

 among children living at dairies, and yet among the families 

 supplied there was almost complete immunity from the 

 disease. He had also occasion to inquire into the cause of 

 outbreaks occurring among the customers of particular 

 milksellers, without being able in any instance to discover 

 that the suspicion which had fallen on the dairy was in 

 any way well founded. His conclusion was that if, under 

 conditions so favourable to the spread of infection, it did 

 not occur, it is more than probable that there must be the 

 greatest difficulty in milk becoming infected. 



At a meeting of the Epidemiological Society of London 

 in December last, a paper was read by Dr. Shirley Murphy, 

 on " The Sanitary Administration of Dairy Farms." His 

 object was to point out the need of legislation, to guard 

 against the spread of disease among dairy cows, and 

 against the infection of milk. Referrino; to the risk of 

 milk becoming contaminated by particles from scarlet fever 



