CHAPTER X 



PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK {continued) 



Scarlet Fever. The Hendon Outbreak. Channels of Infection. Abstracts of 

 Typical Epidemics. Typhoid Fever, the Vehicle of Infection, Bacteriology, 

 and Channels of Infection. Abstracts of Typical Epidemics Diphtheria : 

 the Question of Bo\-ine Diphtheria. The Bacillus of Diphtheria and Milk : 

 Channels of Infection. Abstracts of Typical Epidemics. Throat Illnesses 

 spread by Milk. Epidemic Diarrhoea and Milk. The Bacteriology and 

 Conditions of Diarrhoea. The Relationship of Milk to Epidemic Diarrhoea. 

 Preventive Measures. Cholera. 



Epidemic Diseases conveyed by Milk 



The three main zymotic diseases conveyed by milk are then 

 scarlet fever, typhoid fever, and diphtheria. Cholera must also be 

 named as an epidemic disease in which milk has acted as carrier, 

 and Zymotic enteritis has undoubtedly frequently been caused by 

 milk consumption, and so have a variety of throat illnesses. Of 

 these diseases we propose to speak in the present chapter. 



In passing, it should be again clearly stated, that evidence of 

 the fact that the diseases named have been conveyed by milk rests 

 upon special incidence and collateral circumstance, and not upon 

 bacteriological demonstration. Even in diseases whose bacterial 

 etiology is known, such bacteriological demonstration would be 

 found generally to be impracticable for the same reason as in water- 

 borne disease, namely, that the disease occupies a certain period 

 of incubation before it reveals itself, and therefore the infective 

 milk is rarely obtainable. 



A. Scarlet Fever 



That the essential cause of scarlet fever is a micro-organism 

 there can be little doubt But up to the present time no organism 

 has been definitely isolated, which fulfils the postulates of Koch in 

 respect to specificity of bacteria. Various organisms have, how- 



