DIPHTHERIA 113 



A. large epidemic of diphtheria ^^ which broke out 

 among the inhabitants of the villages along the coast 

 north of ( 'openhagen, in 1881, offered conditions of prop- 

 agation which strongly signified that milk was the means 

 of spreading the contagion. 



In 1893 a small epidemic was noted in Lund, Sweden, 

 when eight persons in different families were sick with 

 diphtheria. These cases were traced to the use of milk 

 from a farm near Lund which was infected with diph- 

 theria.'"' 



Quite an extended epidemic occurred in 1886 in Frim- 

 ley, England; in the course of a few days 70 cases of 

 diphtheria occurred, distributed in moie than .'>() fam- 

 ilies, 1.1 cases being fatal. All the sick had received milk 

 from the same dairy. Not one case of diphtheria oc- 

 curred (luring this time among those using milk from 

 othci' dairies.-'^ 



[The medical literature of recent j'ears contains 

 many rcjiorts of iiiilk-boriu' outbieaks ol' diphtheria, a 

 numl^er of which are gathered and summarized ])y 

 Swithinbank and Newman."- The following case, cited 

 in their summary, is instructive. At Ashtabula, Ohio. 

 100 jxTsoiis became affected with dijjhtheria in Decem- 

 ber, 1S!)4. The houses in which the disease occurred 

 wtMc widely separated but milk was taken at all of them 

 from the same dairyman. On the farm of this dairyman, 

 a worknum had a very sore throat, probably diphthe- 

 ritic This person had assisted in the work of the dairy 

 while suffering acutely from sore throat. Of 44 house- 

 holds investigated, it was found that 32 had received 



-'■' l",i;cskrilt tin- L;K',-er. ISSl. 

 3oil(.^|iil;il>tidende, ISil.;. 

 ■" Ki'f. ill Mili-hzeituii,;;', ISsii, p. S:;.! 

 - Hiu-lt'iiolD-v of :\Iilk. 



