No. XXXVI.A.] APPENDIX. 389 



with sewage as a whole to ensure safety to their neighbours, whilst they 

 protect the inhabitants of their towns. 

 August 30. 



The interest in the milk typhoid question does not abate, judging from 

 the amount of correspondence I receive. This morning the medical officer 

 of one of our largest establishments informs me that he has known parsley 

 to take up the flavour of gas-tar so as to be useless, which is a remarkable 

 instance of the absorption of matter by growing plants. With respect to 

 the remarks of Mr. Holland, we are driven to the alternative that either 

 the typhoid poison originated in the milk or the milk was a convenient 

 pabulum for the typhoid poison to be absorbed in, as nobody now doubts that 

 milk has been an extensive conveyer of the typhoid virus. The facts 

 relating to typhoid in all countries must be considered; and whether in 

 England, or in the hotbeds of the disease in Rome, Florence, and Naples, 

 sewage stands prominently forth as the source whence the poison acts on the 

 human system. Probably it has fallen to my duty to examine the personal 

 history of more cases in most countries of Europe than any other person, 

 and the large number of cases of fever which are recorded in cities on the 

 Continent, where sanitary regulations are confessedly imperfect, is very 

 striking. The act of putrescence is the common concomitant of typhoid 

 poison, and my observations prove that milk, under certain circumstances, 

 is putrescible. It is undeniable that putrescible milk has been supplied 

 where typhoid fever has originated. Does the typhoid poison pass through 

 the cow to the milk ? This is a question which our imperfect knowledge 

 of the nature of the poison forbids us to answer. Then comes the question 

 Is the typhoid poison absorbed by the milk from the atmosphere after it 

 has passed from the cow, and then, if it is so absorbed, does it come from 

 the solid particles of the atmosphere, or does it come from matter in a 

 gaseous state? Some philosophers have considered that the particles of 

 dust which dance in the sunbeam are molecules of disease and death, but 

 no proof has ever been afforded, and I believe that a large majority of the 

 medical profession do not acquiesce in that doctrine. With respect to 

 what is contained in the atmosphere in a purely gaseous state, an elaborate 

 series of experiments has been made at various stations in London, in some 

 of the more important hospitals, and at my experimental garden, and the 

 result has been that not only can the odour of flowers be reduced from the 

 atmosphere, but that large and variable quantities of nitrogenous materials 

 are contained in the atmosphere. Practically it is immaterial whether 

 putrescible milk originates or absorbs typhoid poison. We know that milk 

 under certain circumstances communicates typhoid poison, and it is our 

 bounden duty to make such provision that our large towns are supplied 

 with good and wholesome milk. Medical men generally agree to treat 

 typhoid fever with milk, and it is horrible to contemplate that they have 

 sought to cure the disease by administering additional doses of typhoid 

 poison. The public must reject all milk which is readily putrescible, and 

 refuse milk from all sewage farms which are in the mismanaged state 

 which partisans directly state that they are at present. Mr. Holland most 

 properly asks why putrescible manure spread over the land differs from 

 sewage. The answer is, that there is no perceptible difference. Sewage, 

 however, is applied to the grass immediately before it is used, and contains 



