36 



the milk is also found to exist. I need not specify the circumstances 

 which are often found to exist in actual experience. The existence of 

 these facts is in most instances sufficient to establish a presumptive con- 

 nection at least between the typhoid fever at the dairy and that which 

 exists on the route of the distributer. 



Within the past ten years I have been called to investigate several out- 

 breaks of another disease, — trichinosis, — which is not very common 

 among the native New England population. It is always and invariably 

 due to one cause, — the eating of pork, and also of uncooked or insuffi- 

 ciently cooked pork. Fifty cases and five deaths occurred from this 

 cause in the town of Colrain in Franklin County a few years since, all 

 among Germans or other European immigrants, and all were due to eat- 

 ing raw pork. The disease in the hog is caused by bad methods of feed- 

 ing, and it usually exists in a very considerable percentage of hogs which 

 are swill fed. The State Board of Health, during the past few years, 

 has conducted experiments at two State institutions which show that the 

 disease may be entirely prevented in the hog by cooking his food, and 

 by ceasing to feed out the entrails of slaughtered hogs. 



I have said enough in this direction to establish two important prin- 

 ciples in regard to farm and dairy work ; first, the necessity of absolute 

 cleanliness in every depai'tment of work, and second, the rule which I 

 have already stated, that no person who is ailing or even slightly ill with 

 any infectious disease should be-permitted to have any part in dairy work 

 until such person has entirely recovered and has been pronounced well 

 by the attending physician. If these rules are followed, the milk pro- 

 ducer will have less occasion to complain of frequent loss in the sale of 

 this most useful article of food. 



A great stir has been made in Eui'ope in recent years with the object 

 of preventing the importation of certain fruits, the products of American 

 farms. The reasons alleged, chiefly by the German government, were 

 that poisonous insecticides were used for the spraying of fruit trees in 

 the United States. Another reason alleged was that zinc had been found 

 in dried fruits. This statement rests upon the fact that apples and 

 peaches and other fruits are often evaporated or dried upon zinc trays, 

 and hence small amounts of metallic zinc are occasionally found in the 

 fruit. The amount, however, is so small and the form in which the zinc 

 is found is such that no harm need be feared from this source. 



The practice of spraying fruit trees in the season of blossoming and 

 for a few days afterward has become widespread, and demands a 

 moment's notice. The substances used for this purpose are, some of 

 them at least, deadly poisons. Arsenic in the form of Paris green and 

 London purple, with sulphate of copper or blue vitriol, are employed 

 for this purpose, and these make the most efficient means for desti-oying 

 the various insect pests which attack our fruit trees, currant bushes, 

 potato vines and other plants. 



In the case of fruit trees like the apple, the principal insect pests are 

 the American tent caterpillar and the canker worm, each of which 

 usually hatches and begins and completes its destructive work between 

 May 10 and June 20. Now, the season of harvest for the great volume 



