PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK 



Mr X., a milkman. Most cases 

 occurred where most milk consumed, 

 and the houses supplied by Mr X. 

 suffered 12 times more than the whole 

 of the households supplied by the whole 

 of the remaining dairymen. A child 

 of one of the milkmen was taken ill 

 with scarlet fever on ist April, and 

 appeared to be one of the first cases of 

 the outbreak. Several children of one 

 of the cowmen also had sore throat 

 during April. Of the 109 cows 

 supplying the milk none appeared to 

 have any eruption condition, though 

 there were cracks and abraisions on 

 the teats. 



Apparent exciting cause. — Milk 

 infected from human source. 



Reporter and reference. — Dr King 

 Warry (Med. Off. of Health). Practi- 

 tioner^ 1892, vol. ii., p. 63. 



Olassow, 1892 {A ugust). 



Total number of cases . .236 



Deaths 11 



Number of cases amongst 



drinkers of suspected milk . 236 

 Percentage on total cases . .100 

 Number of families supplied by 



milkman 359 



Number of such families invaded 152 

 Number of polluted milk sources i 

 Number of milkmen . . . i 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Sanitary conditions of dairy 

 and farm satisfactory. Ulcerative 

 eruption on udders and teats of cattle, 

 vesicular, semi-pustular, crusted, with 

 blackened centre ; communicable from 

 cow to cow, and shed to shed. Sores 

 on the hands of some of the milkers. 

 Dr Klein found the cow disease in 

 this case to be allied in some points 

 to the Hendon disease. 



The incidence of the disease was con- 

 fined to the milk service of one dairy 

 getting milk from two farms. Milk 

 from the implicated farm mostly used 

 on first morning round (57 families), 



91 individuals being attacked out of 

 193 families supplied on this round. 

 The mixed milk always used on second 

 round, and 59 individuals in 37 (out of 

 166) families attacked thereon. The 

 counter trade was mostly with the 

 implicated milk, 86 persons in 58 

 families being attacked. Some of the 

 unsuspected milk was transferred each 

 day to another dairy during part of 

 the epidemic period. No cases of 

 scarlet fever occurred in the customers 

 of the dairy so served. The suspected 

 milk was stopped on 7th August. No 

 cases traceable directly to the agency 

 of the milk occurred later than 20th 

 August. In one street 2 1 families (more 

 than half of those supplied with the 

 milk) yielded 29 cases of disease. As 

 some streets taking the milk suffered 

 no attacks, the active principle of con- 

 tagion was apparently not uniformly 

 distributed. 



Apparent exciting cause. — (?) Cow 

 disease. 



Reporter and reference. — Drs Russell 

 and Chalmers. Special Rep. to Cor- 

 poration of Glasgow. 



St Pancras, 1898. 



28 



Number of persons attacked 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Outbreak began at end of 

 October among customers of a certain 

 milk seller in Highgate. He received 

 milk from his own cows, from Fins- 

 buryTark, and from Hendon. Of the 

 customers supplied from his own cows, 

 none were attacked. The other milk 

 was distributed in three rounds. On 

 two rounds the customers received 

 Finsbury Park and Hendon milk in 

 the morning and afternoon respec- 

 tively. Customers on the third round 

 received Hendon milk both morning 

 and afternoon. The customers on the 

 first two rounds numbered 191, and 8 

 of them or 4-2 per cent, were attacked 

 The customers on the third round 



