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epkleiuic of scarlt't fever among the students at Purdue University, and 

 it is tliis tliat I consider tlie feature of this paper. 



About the first of December, 1902, it was reported to the authorities 

 of Purdue University, lliat there were a few cases of suspicious siclvuess 

 among the students. One instructor, also, was found to l)e quite ill, and 

 during the illness had a well defined rash, and later had the characteristic 

 "peeling" of scarlet fever. This case was not reported at first as being- 

 scarlet fever. 



Six cases were confined in tiie hospital (St. Elizabeth's) and twenty- 

 nine others, most of v.iiicli were not well defined cases, were at large 

 among the other students. Some few cases were purposely concealed by 

 students and physicians, so that other students rooming in the same houses 

 would not be ciuarantined. and thus lose time from their classes. At 

 first, no common source of infection could be traced, the boj's not eating 

 at the same places, and in some cases not even knowing the other patients. 

 The thirty-five cases, it was found, were fed at eleven different lioarding 

 houses or clubs, all of \vliich were supplied witli milk from the same 

 dairyman. 



Interesting, too, in tliis connection was tlie fact that the boy who 

 assisted in delivering the milk, came down with a severe case of "tonsi- 

 litis" at the same time as the students, and had to give up his work tem- 

 porarily. Five private f.iinilies. supplied with millv from this same man, 

 had one or more cases of genuine scarlet fever among their children at the 

 same time. It is not likely that tlu' boy who delivered the milk spread 

 the disease, but that he contracted it Ity drinking the milk as did the 

 students. 



An investigation of the dairy, and the dairyman's family, did not re- 

 veal anything that could liave caused the epidemic. There was no sick- 

 ness in the family, nor in eitlier of the other tAvo families that supplied 

 the dairyman witli additional milk. The probable explanation of the 

 source of infection lies in the fact that last March the dairyman's family 

 ran through a course of scarlet fever, and this being about the time that 

 the winter clothing was abandoned for the thin summer clothing, that 

 winter clothing would again have to be put on l)ut a short time prior to 

 the outbreak among the students at Purdue. As it is known that the 

 scarlet fever infection may remain virulent for a considerable time in 

 clothing, it is not unlikely that it was through this means that the milk 

 was infected. There is one other possibility, viz., that there might have 



