GASTRO-INTESTINAL INFECTIONS. 55 



desquamating stage of scarlet fever, and he himself showed 

 markedly prominent papillae of the tongue. Trask (32) has 

 collected information concerning 125 milk-borne scarlet fever 

 epidemics. 



Gastro-intestinai infections. The subject of clean milk in 

 its relation to health has been widely discussed in connection 

 with the subject of infant feeding. One-third to one-half of 

 all deaths under one year are due to ga.stro-intestinal disorders. 

 The very heavy infant mortality from this class of diseases 

 has occasioned careful scrutiny into the causes contributing 

 thereto. It has been shown that 75% to 85 Vf of those dying 

 from this cause are artificially fed. During the summer the 

 deaths from this cause rise, while those from other causes 

 remain stationary. In Paris, "the diarrheal death rate in 

 breast-fed infants, varies from a minimum of 2 per thousand 

 in winter to a maximum of but 20 per thousand during the hot 

 months; the diarrheal deaths of the artificially fed, fluctuate 

 from a minimum of 12 per thousand in winter to a maximum 

 of 158 per thousand in the summer "(31). The striking differ- 

 ence here, leads to the suspicion that the food is to blame. 



Evidence of the injury done by cow's milk in this connection 

 has not been completely worked out with reference to the spe- 

 cies concerned. Suspicion has been directed against the pep- 

 tonizing organisms, R. co/i, B. protcus, streptococci, etc., or to 

 toxic products resulting from their growth. 



Streptococci as a cause of gastro-intestinai disturbances have 

 been incriminated by agglutination experiments with the organ- 

 isms found in the feces. It has been found that the serum of 

 patients develops a specific agglutinating power for certain 

 strains of streptococci found in the feces (6). Streptococci 

 are demonstrable in practically all raw market milk. The 

 difficulties of recognizing pathogenic streptococci in milk are 

 very great, because of the close resemblance of the common 

 lactic acid producing bacteria. Streptococcus infections of the 

 cows udder are very common and there is ample opportunity 

 for the infection of market milk (27). The subject is more 

 completely discussed in Chap. \\\. 



Evidence has been adduced from observation of the different 



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