DISEASES CAUSED BY INFECTED MILK 123 



due to infected milk have not been recognized in this 

 country until recently. In May, 1911, an outbreak in- 

 volving several thousand persons occurred in Boston. Since 

 then similar outbreaks have occurred in Baltimore, Concord, 

 New Hampshire, Chicago, and other places throughout the 

 country. The disease is evidently spreading. In March, 

 1908, a similar outbreak occurred in Christiania, Nor- 

 way. 



"Septic sore throat" due to infected milk is well known 

 in Great Britain. Swithinbank and Newmann (1903) even 

 go so far as to say, "It is safe to assume that a year never 

 goes by in which there are not outbreaks of sore throat or 

 tonsillitis due to milk or cream." Outbreaks belonging to 

 the tonsillitis or quinsy type (septic sore throat), more or 

 less paralleling the Massachusetts epidemic, were reported 

 at Aberdeen and at Rugby School in 1881, at Dover in 

 1884, at Edinburgh in 1888, at Rothesay in 1890, at Hack- 

 ney in 1900, at Lincoln and Bedford in 1902, at Woking in 

 1903, at Glasgow and Paisley in 1904, and at Colchester in 

 1905. The evidence that the disease was spread by milk 

 is quite convincing in almost all these cases, and in many 

 of them the character of the disease, called by the English 

 sanitarians "septic sore throat," was exactly as noted in 

 our countiy over the past year. The appearance of the 

 throat, the relapses and enlarged regional glands, the oc- 

 currence of complications such as rheumatism, erysipelas, 

 and septic infections, are all described, as well as the heavy 

 incidence among females. 



These infections appear to be due to a streptococcus, 

 and it is probable that the pathogenic streptococci re- 

 sponsible for the disease get into the milk from human 

 sources. It is possible, however, that cases of sore throat 

 are sometimes caused by contamination of the milk not 

 from a human source, but from streptococci eliminated 

 by diseased udders. 



The outbreaks of sore throat due to milk are charac- 



