CONTROL OF BACTERIAL DISEASES 243 



surface and at the center of the mass they were swarming, 

 and the temperature there was only 28 C. This proved 

 that " ordinary baking merely incubates the interior of these 

 masses of food." 1 



At a Gettysburg soldiers' reunion one of the men " not feeling very 

 well" was assigned mess duty. As a consequence (probably of his 

 handling the bread) fifty-five of the company developed typhoid. 



Naturally extreme danger attaches to contact infection of foods in 

 which bacteria may multiply -. lobster, shellfish, cooked meats, and es- 

 pecially milk. Formerly epidemics following the eating of these things 

 were explained on the theory of "ptomaine poisoning" that is, that 

 poisons (ptomaines) were formed by bacterial growth in the substance, 

 which were not destroyed by heat. Jordan says of this : w Many of the 

 epidemics of 'meat poisoning ' etc. are now known to be due to infection 

 with a specific microorganism rather than to the action of a formed 

 poison." 2 Milk is a most favorable culture medium for bacterial growth, 

 and naturally many epidemics are traced to it. Chapin gives the follow- 

 ing figures : 315 outbreaks of typhoid, 125 of scarlet fever, 51 of diph- 

 theria, and 7 of tonsillitis (epidemic sore throat). Immediate report to 

 the board of health of the milk route on which a case of illness occurs 

 makes it possible to nip many an epidemic in the bud, a visit to the dairy 

 generally revealing the source of the infection. 



Recent outbreaks of typhoid on two milk routes in Hartford, Con- 

 necticut, 12 cases in September, 1914, and 34 cases in November, 

 were traced to the same carrier, an occasional milker, who had moved 

 from one dairy to the other. 



All the typhoid, 21 cases, in a Minnesota town for five years was 

 traced to one carrier in a dairy. 8 



An epidemic of diphtheria in Lincoln, Nebraska, of 110 cases and 

 2 deaths (97 received antitoxin promptly, and none of these died) was 

 traced to a diphtheretic w sore throat " of a milker. The money cost to 

 the community of this " trifling sore throat " is estimated at $10,000, in 

 addition to the suffering, labor of nursing, and the 2 deaths. 4 



1 Sawyer, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1914, p. 1537. 



2 Jordan, General Bacteriology, p. 101. 



8 H.W. Hill, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. IV (1914), p. 667. 

 4 Wait, ff Report of Milk-borne Epidemic of Diphtheria," American 

 Journal of Public Health, Vol. IV (1914), p. 418. 



