MILK-SCARLATINA. 265 



(3) This streptococcus is found, sometimes in company with Staphylo- 

 coccus pyogeiies aureus, as a secondary result in scarlet fever and 

 many other diseases, and its exact relation to scarlet fever and its 

 identity with the streptococcus from pus and puerperal fever, were 

 definitely established in 1885 by Frankel and Freudenberg. 



MILK- SCARLATINA. 



It would not be necessary to say anything further on the etiology 

 of scarlet fever if the generally accepted belief, that scarlet fever is 

 a disease peculiar to man, were accepted by the Medical Department 

 of the Local Government Board; but the theory is officially held 

 that scarlet fever is in its origin a disease of cows. Bovine scarlatina 

 is supposed to be an eruptive disease of the teats, and it is maintained 

 that the virus, by contaminating the milk, produces scarlet fever in 

 the human subject. As this theory is very naturally accepted by 

 many medical officers of health, and is mentioned in English medical 

 text-books, it will be necessary to discuss this question in considerable 

 detail, and especially as these opinions were promulgated in this 

 country with official support, and have since been proved to be 

 erroneous. 



The theory of the origin of the exanthemata in diseases of the 

 lower animals is a very old one. The Arabians imagined that small- 

 pox arose from the camel. Jenner adopted a similar theory, and 

 expressed his belief that small-pox originated in the horse, being 

 generated by horses suffering with " greasy " hocks. Thus Jenner 

 wrote : "May not accidental circumstances have again and again 

 arisen, still working new changes upon it, until it has acquired 

 the contagious and malignant form under which we now com- 

 monly see it, making its devastations among us ? and from a 

 consideration of the change which the infectious matter undergoes 

 from producing a disease in the cow, may we not conceive that 

 many contagious diseases now prevalent amongst us may owe their 

 present appearance, not to a simple, but a compound origin ? For 

 example, is it difficult to imagine that measles, scarlet fever, ulcerated 

 sore throats, and spotted skin, all spring from the same source, 

 assuming some variety in their forms according to the nature of 

 their new combinations?" Baron informs us that tliis idea was 

 prevalent in Jeimer's mind as early as 1787. It is related that in 

 that year he accompanied his nephew, George Jenner, into a stable 

 to look at a horse with diseased heels, and, pointing to them, he 

 it-marked : " There is the source of small-pox. I have much to say 



