CHAPTER IX 



PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK {continued) 



Introducton- Note. Signs and Characteristics of Milk-borne Epidemics : — (i) 

 Special Incidences, {a) Local, {b) as regards Social Position of those 

 attacked, {c) Incidence on Milk-drinkers, {d) Age and Sex Incidence ; (2) 

 Incubation ; (3) Sudden Onset and Rapid Decline ; (4) Clinical Char- 

 acters ; (5) Mortality-rate in Milk-borne Disease. 



The Characteristics of Milk-borne Epidemics 



It has been known for some time past that the materies morbi of 

 certain epidemic diseases may be conveyed by means of drinking 

 infective milk. As far back as 1857, Dr Michael Taylor of Penrith 

 was able to demonstrate in a clear manner such conveyance. In 

 1 88 1 it was possible to record more than seventy outbreaks 

 which had been traced to the milk supply.^ Some fifty of these 

 were epidemics of typhoid fever, more than a dozen were of 

 scarlet fever, and several were outbreaks of diphtheria. In 1897 a 

 further search among the records revealed nearly one hundred 

 more such epidemics.' Neither of these lists was, or professed to 

 be, complete. Other compilations, including one by R. G. Free- 

 man of New York,^ have added to the already ample chronicles of 

 such outbreaks. Every year brings confirmatory evidence. So 

 that the authors have been able to collect and study the main facts 

 respecting some two hundred and fifty epidemics due to an in- 

 fected milk supply.* Brief abstracts of the more typical outbreaks 

 will be found in the present chapter, but in order to avoid a repeti- 

 tion of these or similar details which would become wearisome and 

 serve no useful purpose, it has been thought suflficient if in the re- 

 maining cases the names of the places and the dates of occurrence 

 are stated. Lastly, it must be remembered that no records, how- 



1 Trans, of International Medical Congress, 1881, voL iv. (E. Hart). 



* Brit. Med. Jour.., 1897, vol. i., pp. 1167, 1229, 1293. 

 3 Medical Record, 1896 (28th March). 



* In this task they desire to acknowledge the convenient assistance they 

 have derived from the bibliographical references attached to the lists of Hart, 

 Freeman, and others. 



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