570 Tra nsact ion s . — BlisceUaneous . 



Akt. LXIV. — 3Iilk as a Vehicle of Disease. 

 By Ernest Roberton, M.D. 



\_Read before the Aucldand Institute, 27th October, 1890.] 



The i^resent age is remarkable for the interest taken by the 

 general public in the public health. From times immemorial 

 it has been regarded as the duty of governing authorities to 

 protect the communities under their care from such forces as 

 might occasion disease and death. Indeed, the cities of Greece 

 and Eome in the days of their ancient splendour might in 

 many ways compare favourably with modern towns as regards 

 their sanitary arrangements. 



With the advance of civilization it has been found neces- 

 sary to cope with new enemies to health. For example, as 

 villages have become towns vast systems of drainage have 

 been demanded, and with the influx of population into manu- 

 facturing centres, and the resulting overcrowding, legislation 

 has had to be provided regulating the arrangement of build- 

 ings designed for the accommodation of the poorer working- 

 classes. 



There is, however, another direction in which it has been 

 necessary to advance with the times. Science, ever searching 

 for explanations of facts, has been able to point out causes 

 of prevalent disease — causes previously unsuspected, or, if 

 suspected, not proved. A recognition of the fact that typhus 

 fever required for its propagation the poisoned air and squalid 

 surroundings once so frequent in the alleys and closes of the 

 larger cities of Britain was followed by legislation which so 

 vastly improved the homes and surroundings of the poorest 

 working-classes that typhus is now almost unkown where it 

 was once rampant. With increased knowledge also of the 

 conditions favouring the development of typhoid fever, even it, 

 still a scourge in almost every country, is gradually being 

 overcome, and its ravages decreased. 



The progress of sanitary science and the consequent ad- 

 vance in the direction of preventive medicine has been espe- 

 cially marked during the last twenty or thirty years, and 

 probably what is popularly known as the " germ theory " has 

 had the greatest influence in effecting this. At present 

 especial interest is being taken by those concerned iu pre- 

 serving the public health in the consideration of the influence 

 which our animal food has in propagating disease. That it is 

 at present a means of spreading disease there is no doubt. 

 Most interest is shown probably in the question as to whether 

 the bodies of animals aifected by certain diseases are fit for 



