322 



PATHOGENIC BACTERIA IN MILK 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Sanitary conditions good. 

 A bundle of body clothing used by a 

 person who had died from enteric 

 fever was brought to dairy-farm to 

 wash. A fortnight later typhoid fever 

 broke out in a very small community 

 using milk from this farm. In one 

 family eight were attacked almost 

 simultaneously, in another seven, and 

 another six. Persons escaping the 

 disease in nearly every instance had 

 not consumed this milk. 



Probable exciting cause. — Human 

 source. 



Reporter and reference. — Dr J. 

 Christie. Sanitary Record^ vol. iv., 

 p. 342. 



Dublin, 1878 {December). 



Total number of cases . . 67 

 Number of cases amongst 



drinkers of suspected milk . 67 



Percentage on total cases . . 100 

 Number of families supplied by 



milkman 42 



Number of such families in- 

 vaded 30 



Percentage . . . . » 71 



Number of polluted milk sources i 



Number of milkmen . . . i 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Dairyman and child had an 

 illness which was undoubtedly typhoid 

 fever. There were also sanitary 

 defects, premises small and ill- 

 arranged, the family alone managing 

 the business. Houses attacked were 

 of good class. Every infected house 

 consumed milk from infected dairy 

 and the disease picked out the milk 

 drinkers of each family with remark- 

 able accuracy. 



Probable exciting cause. — Human 

 source. 



Reporter and reference. — Sir C. A. 

 Cameron, M.D. (Med. Off. of Health). 

 Dublin Jour, of Med. Science, July 1879, 

 p. I. 



Chichester, 1879 {February'). 



Total number of cases . . 50 



Deaths 6 



Number of families supplied by 



milkman .... 59 



Number of such families invaded 26 



Percentage .... 43 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Dr Airy believed infection 

 was derived by washing the udders of 

 the milch cows with water from a 

 brook polluted with typhoid excreta. 



Probable exciting cause. — Human 

 source. 



Reporter and reference. — Dr Airy 

 (Loc. Gov. Bd.) ; also Brit. Med. Jour., 

 1879, vol. ii., p. 475. 



Milltarook, Cornwall, 1880 



{July-September'). 



Total number of cases . . 91 

 Number of cases amongst 



drinkers of suspected milk . 91 



Percentage on total cases . . 100 



Number of polluted milk sources i 



Number of milkmen ... i 



Circumstances implicating the milk 

 supply. — Part of a slaughter-house not 

 used as such but as a wash-house was 

 boarded off to constitute a dairy. On 

 a shelf of this dairy the milk was 

 habitually set in pans, exposed to the 

 air. In one corner of the slaughter- 

 house, nearest the dairy, was a badly 

 trapped and very offensive drain inlet. 

 Close to this inlet ran the wooden 

 partition between the slaughter-house 

 and the dairy, which near the inlet had 

 been long broken away. The drain was 

 in communication with an old square 

 drain which had received typhoid 

 excreta, so that the infected sewer air 

 from the inlet had free access to the 

 dairy and the exposed milk which 

 stood in the dairy. Six cases of 

 typhoid occurred in the butcher's 

 family. There was evidence to show 

 that the drain was in a "waterless" 

 condition. 



