270 



PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK 



percentage of women and children it was provisionally suspected 

 that milk had been the channel of infection. Nor is this principle 

 likely to prove a fallacy if school infection be disproved or unlikely. 

 Diphtheria and scarlet fever are more commonly conveyed by school 

 infection than by milk ; but in typhoid fever, school infection is of 

 course rare. Hence other circumstances may be present in an 

 outbreak which account for a marked incidence on children other 

 than the consumption of milk, and these should receive due con- 

 sideration. In this connection it is well to remember that at the 

 present time children, especially those of the poor, are fed in a 

 large measure on " condensed milk " and other similar prepara- 

 tions. Still it remains true in a general way that milk outbreaks 

 commonly affect in a marked degree women and children. 



Dr Davies found that in the milk-borne typhoid epidemic at 

 Clifton in 1897 the disease proved to have a heavier incidence upon 

 females than males, which of itself is a characteristic of milk-borne 

 infection. His table, which includes occupations and social position, 

 is as follows : — 



From these figures it is clear that two-thirds of the total number 

 of attacks were in females. The occupations of those attacked in 

 this instance is not of particular interest except in regard to the 

 greater or lesser incidence of the disease upon persons habitually 

 consuming much or little milk. 



On the other hand, several observers have emphasised the 

 incidence of milk-borne disease upon adults, and particularly men. 

 ■Quite recently Sir Henry Littlejohn of Edinburgh, in recording a 



