J4 



BACTERIAL POISONS. 



" Farther inquiry revealed the fact that all who had 

 been taken ill had used milk in greater or less quantities, 

 and that persons who had not partaken of milk escaped 

 entirely ; corroborative of this, it was ascertained that 

 those who had used milk to the exclusion of all other food 

 were violently ill. This was prominently noticed in the 

 cases of infants fed from the bottle, when nothing but un- 

 cooked milk was used. In one case an adult drank about 

 a quart of the milk, and was almost immediately seized 

 with violent vomiting followed by diarrhoea, and this by 

 collapse. SufiSce it to say, that we were able to eliminate 

 all other articles of food and to decide that the milk was the 

 sole cause of the outbreak. 



" Having been able to determine this, the next step was 

 to discover why that article should, in these cases, cause so 

 serious a form of sickness. 



" The probable causes which we were to investigate were 

 outlined as follows : (1) Some chemical substance, such as 

 borax, boric acid, salicylic acid, sodium bicarbonate, sodium 

 sulphate, added to preserve the milk or to correct acidity. 

 (2) The use of polluted water as an adulterant. (3) Some 

 poisonous material accidentally present in the milk. (4) The 

 use of milk from diseased cattle. (5) Improper feeding of 

 the cattle. (6) The improper care of the milk. (7) The 

 development in the milk of some ferment or ptomaine, 

 such as tyrotoxicon. 



"At the time of the first outbreak we were unable, un- 

 fortunately, to obtain any of the noxious milk, as that un- 

 consumed had been destroyed; but at the second outbreak 

 a liberal quantity was procured. 



" It was soon ascertained that one dealer had supplied 

 all the milk used at the three hotels where the cases of 

 sickness had occurred. His name and address having been 

 obtained, the next step in the investigation was to inspect 

 all the farms, and the cattle thereon, from which the milk 

 was taken. We also learned that two deliveries at the 

 hotels were made daily, one in the morning and one in the 

 evening; that the milk supplied at night was the sole 

 cause of the sickness, and that the milk from but one of 



