318 DISTRIBUTION OF BACTERIA 



scribed. Klein and some others believe that cows may suffer 

 from this disease, and that the germs may be thus trans- 

 mitted from the animal to man. Most investigators have 

 been unable to obtain evidence which would confirm this belief, 

 and it is generally recognized that the Bact. diphtheriae must 

 get into milk after the milk leaves the body of the animal in 

 one of the first two ways indicated under typhoid fever. An 

 epidemic which is characteristic of this disease occurred in 

 Hightstown, N.J., in 1892. There were twenty-eight cases 

 and four deaths. All these cases occurred within one week, 

 and all of them used milk from one particular dairy. Upon 

 investigation it was found that a German boy who assisted in 

 milking was suffering from diphtheria at the time and was, 

 therefore, the means of distributing the disease. 



Scarlet Fever. A considerable number of epidemics of 

 scarlet fever have been traced to milk supplies. From 1867- 

 1899 ninety-nine epidemics of this kind w r ere reported. As a 

 typical example of such epidemics the one which occurred in 

 Buffalo, N.Y., may be cited. Twenty cases occurred in the 

 city and were found to be all in the families of those taking 

 milk from a particular farm. Upon investigation it was found 

 that four persons who lived at this farm had had scarlet fever, 

 and that one, a convalescent, had helped in the milking and 

 the handling of the cows. This was stopped, and no more 

 cases developed. 



