BACTERIA IN MILK 1033 



Scarlet fever, 19 though as yet of unknown etiology, has in many 

 cases been traced indirectly to milk infection. Trask has collected 

 fifty-one epidemics of scarlet fever presumably due to milk. In one 

 epidemic occurring in Nor walk, Conn., 20 twenty-nine cases wer"e 

 distributed among twenty-five families living in twenty-four different 

 houses. The individuals affected did not attend the same school, 

 and were of entirely different social standing, the only factor com- 

 mon to. all of them being the milk supply. 



Diphtheria has been frequently traced to the use of infected milk. 

 In most of the epidemics reported as originating in this way, the 

 proof has been necessarily indirect. In two out of twenty-three 

 epidemics reported by Trask, however, Bacillus diphtherias was 

 isolated from the milk directly. The ability of the Klebs-Loeffler 

 bacillus to proliferate and remain alive for a long while in raw 

 milk has been demonstrated by Eyre 21 and others. 



Whether or not cholera asiatica may be transmitted by means of 

 milk has been a disputed question. Hesse 22 claims that cholera 

 spirilla die out in raw milk within twelve hours. This statement, 

 however, has not been borne out by other observers. 23 Unquestion- 

 able cases of direct transmission of cholera by means of milk have 

 been reported by a number of writers, notably by Simpson. 24 



The relation of milk to the diarrheal diseases of infants has, of 

 late years, received a great deal of attention. In large cities, during 

 the summer months, numerous cases of infantile diarrhea among 

 bottle-fed babies occur, which, in many instances, are attributed to 

 feeding with contaminated milk. Park and Holt, 25 who have made 

 extensive researches upon this question in New York City, have 

 come to the conclusion that the harmful effects of contaminated milk 

 upon babies can not be ascribed to any given single microorganism 

 in the milk. Specifically toxic properties were found by these writers 

 for none of the one hundred and thirty-nine different species of 

 bacteria isolated from unsterilized milk. It is unlikely, therefore, 

 that the diarrheal diseases among babies have a uniform bacteriolog- 



18 Trask, loc. cit. 



20 Herbert E. Smith, Eep. Conn. State Bd. of Health, 1897. 



21 Eyre, Brit. Med. Jour., 1899. 



22 Hesse, Zeit. f. Hyg., xvii, 1894. 

 2 *Basenau, Arch. f. Hyg., xxiii, 1895. 



24 Simpson, Indian Med. Gaz., 1887. 



25 Park and Holt, Arch, of Fed., Dec., 1903. 



