286 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK 



forthcoming to establish the proposition that this cow disease was 

 cow scarlatina. 



In a special report, Sir George Brown, at that time Head 

 of the Agricultural Department of the Privy Council, clearly 

 stated the grounds upon which the chief dissension to the cow- 

 scarlatina hypothesis was based.^ 



The first criticism was that the Hendon cow disease of 1885-6 

 was not an isolated outbreak confined to the particular farm at 

 Hendon, but was going on at the same time with several other 

 outbreaks, all of which were due to the introduction of cows from 

 a Derby dealer's herd, from which were, admittedly, derived the 

 Hendon disease cows. The 3 cows to which the implicated milk 

 had been traced by Mr Power were, it appears, part of a lot 

 of 30 cows bought in Derby market, and of which several were 

 suffering from sore teats, and others contracted the disease from 

 their comrades before being disposed of. " From the first day to 

 the last, while the milk from these cows was being drunk, no case 

 of scarlatina was heard of among the customers of the dairy. Of 

 the 30 cows 8 were sold to Mr T. K., a dairyman at Merlon, 

 3 were sold to Mr C. of Hendon, and 3 to the late Mr P. (the 

 unfortunate Hendon farmer to whose farm the milk epidemic 

 was traced). The remainder were disposed of in ones and twos 

 to various metropolitan and provincial dairymen " (Axe). It is 

 stated that the eruptive disease in the Derby cows which passed 

 into the possession of Mr T. K. of Merton, spread in the herds 

 which they joined, and although nearly five hundred households 

 were supplied with their milk, no case of scarlatina occurred. 

 Several cases of hand eruption occurred in the milkers coming into 

 contact with the diseased cows, and this eruption was diagnosed 

 as of the nature of vaccinia (Axe). Of the 3 Derby cows which 

 were sold to Mr C. of Hendon, one was suffering from the udder 

 disease, which soon affected upwards of a dozen cows belonging 

 to Mr C. The milk from these animals was disposed of in the 

 usual way during the entire period of the ailment, but without 

 complaint being heard from any of the customers, or a case of 

 scarlatina being known to exist among them (Axe). To the 3 

 Derby cows, which apparently suffered from the same udder disease, 

 which passed into the herd of Mr P. of Hendon it is alleged the 

 scarlet fever epidemic in North London was due. 



^ Report on Eruptive Diseases of the Teats and Udders of Cows in relation 

 to Scarlet Fever in Man, by Professor Brown, C.B., Agricultural Department, 

 Privy Council Office, 1888 (with appendix and plates). 



