282 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK 



vaginal discharge as well. In this respect she presented a rather strong 

 contrast to most of the other cows. . . . 



" Few physicians will be disposed to deny a relation between scarlatina and 

 certain forms of febrile puerperal diseases in women. The contagion of scarlatina 

 introduced into the lying-in room has often and with reason been held respon- 

 sible for puerperal fever. 



" Now if it be true that there is one sort of relation between scarlatina and 

 accidents of the puerperal state, another sort of relation becomes comparatively 

 easy of belief, while there would seem nothing improbable in the further 

 suggestion that all such relations would be qualified by the passage of a common 

 contagion through the system of another animal. 



"If scarlatina in man have other animal source than human source, it may be 

 that one such source is the cow that has recently calved, a cow either not at 

 all ill (except for her parturition) or not so obviously ill as to prevent her milk 

 being used for human consumption. Milk of a recently delivered cow might 

 become infective in more than one way. Either it might as a secretion of the 

 cow contain infective matter that was circulating in the system of the cow ; or 

 else uterine or other discharges of the cow fouling her udder, might, by a 

 careless milker, be mixed with her milk in the act of milking." ' 



Such is Mr Power's account of his views concerning the scarlet 

 fever outbreak of 1882. It may be added that at the time Dr 

 Klein was consulted, and he made certain preliminary inoculation 

 experiments with the object of learning whether or not human 

 scarlet fever was inoculable into the cow. In the main the results 

 were negative, though the inoculation of muco-purulent throat 

 discharge gave rise to abcess formation in the inoculated cows. 

 Sir George Buchanan wrote : — " He [Dr Klein] has found that a 

 cow, having recently calved, when inoculated experimentally with 

 human scarlatina (muco-purulent throat discharge from a scarlatina 

 patient) is affected by an ailment which is transmissible after the 

 manner of an acute specific disease, to dogs ; that this ailment in 

 the cow is not accompanied by any marked fever, does not take 

 her off her food, and does not alter the quantity or visible 

 characters of her milk. Its symptoms are not such as would be 

 recognised as forbidding the use of the cow for dairy purposes." - 



The Hendon Outbreak 



A second opportunity for the investigation of the entire 

 problem occurred at the end of 1885, when another outbreak of 

 scarlet fever, traceable to the milk supply, appeared in North 

 London. In this instance the implicated farm was at Hendon, 

 and the necessary investigations were again entrusted to Mr Power. 



* Report of Local Government Boards 1882 (Medical Supplement), p. 65. 

 2 Report to Local Government Boards 1883, p. vii. 



