CHAPTER XI 



THE INVESTIGATION AND PREVENTION OF MILK-BORNE 



EPIDEMICS 



The Investigation of Milk-bome Epidemics. Methods of Prevention. Modem 

 Bacteriological Methods applied to Milk-bome Disease : Diagnosis and 

 Preventive Inoculation. 



The investigation and prevention of milk-borne disease depends 

 upon exact knowledge of the disease, and an intimate knowledge 

 of the milk trade. The former has already been treated of; the 

 latter will be considered in the chapters dealing with the control 

 of the milk supply. The present chapter will be concerned with 

 some of the methods to be adopted in investigating milk-bome 

 outbreaks. 



The Investigation of Milk-Borne Epidemics 



In these days everyone is aware in a general way of the 



machiner)- by which epidemics of infectious disease are con- 



ttrolled. It has now been in vogue in England for more than 



la decade. In the main, this machinery' may be described 



'in three words — notification, isolation, disinfection. The first of 



; these (notification) is the only one which can be considered 



as auxiliary to the methods of investigating outbreaks of 



infectious disease. The Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, 



1889, was a compulsory Act in London after the expiration of two 



months from its passing. But in urban and rural districts outside 



ithe metropolitan area it was an adoptive Act, and until its 



■adoption in a locality did not become law. Fortunately its adoption 



[soon became fairly general, for sanitary authorities found that 



\ without it they were unable to obtain the data of infectious epidemic 



■disease necessary to its efficient control. So satisfactory did noti- 



ication work during the first ten years, that on ist January 1900 



the provisions of the 1889 Act were enforced everywhere by means 



