Disease Bacteria in Milk. 85 



3. Scarlet Fever. The exact relation of scarlet fever 

 to milk is still harder to study, inasmuch, as the specific 

 organism of this disease has not yet been isolated. Nev- 

 ertheless, the evidence in a constantly increasing number 

 of epidemics is so strong in favor of the view that dis- 

 semination of disease occurs by means of polluted milk, 

 that the relation may be considered as practically estab- 

 lished. Klein 1 holds that a certain eruptive udder dis- 

 ease of cattle is the same as scarlet fever, and that it is 

 communicable to man. His conclusions, however, are 

 not generally accepted, although it is regarded as thor- 

 oughly proven that the disease may be propagated in the 

 milk after it is drawn. 



C. POISON-FORMING BACTERIA IN MILK. 



83. Toxic or poisonous milk. Milk not infre- 

 quently acquires poisonous properties by virtue of the 

 development of various putrefactive bacteria that form 

 poisonous by-products as a result of decomposition pro- 

 cesses. In some cases the toxic products are formed in 

 the milk outside of the body. When such milk is in- 

 gested, symptoms of poisoning soon appear. In other 

 cases, certain bacteria found in the milk develop in the 

 intestine producing a toxic effect. 



Milk contaminated with filth frequently contains putre- 

 factive bacteria that form substances that cause gastric 

 and intestinal troubles, especially in infants. Vaughan 

 asserts that the larger number of cases of summer diar- 

 rhoea are due to putrefactive organisms in the milk. 

 The much higher mortality of bottle-fed, compared with 

 breast-fed infants is undoubtedly attributable to the ac- 

 tion of these microbes in milk 2 . 



1 Klein, 7th Intern. Hyg. Cong. (London), p. 130, 1891. 

 2 Baginsky, Hyg. Rund., p. 176, 1895. 



