MILK-SCARLATINA. 267 



two facts were ascertained : the one, that a cow recently come into 

 milk had been suffering from some ailment from the time of her 

 parturition, of • which loss of hair in patches was the most con- 

 spicuous manifestation ; the other, that there existed no discoverable 

 means by which the milk could have received infective quality from 

 the hviman subject. 



In 1885 an outbreak of scarlet fever occurred in Marylebone in 

 connection with milk from a farm at Hendon, and again Power 

 failed to establish infection from any human source in any commonly 

 accepted way — such, for example, as handUng of milk, or milk utensils, 

 by persons carrying scarlatina infection. But on examining the 

 cows with a view to ascertain any new condition pertaining to 

 them, it came to hght during the inquiry that some of them, 

 which had recently been introduced from Derbyshire, were suffering 

 from a vesicular disease of the teats. 



At this stage Klein became associated with Power in the 

 inquiry; and their belief in the existence of a disease among the 

 cows on the farm capable of producing scarlatina among human 

 consumers of the cow's milk, became unreserved. Klein took away 

 with him samples of milk, contents of vesicles, and discharges 

 from ulcers, and afterwards two of the cows were purchased and 

 kept under observation. 



Dr. Cameron of Hendon has given a detailed description of the 

 clinical history of this disease. He expressed his belief that it was 

 a specific disease capable of being communicated to healthy cows 

 by direct inoculation of the teats with virus conveyed by the milker 

 from a diseased animal. 



The condition of the teats is described as follows : The teats 

 became enlarged, swollen to nearly twice their natural size, and 

 oedematous. On handling them there was no feeling of induration. 

 Vesicles appeared on the swollen teats and upon the udder between 

 or near the teats. These varied in number from two to four on a 

 teat, and in size from a pea to a horsebean. The vesicle contained 

 a clear fluid. The vesicles were rubbed and broken in milking, and 

 left raw sores, sometimes red, in other cases pale in colour, with 

 raised, ulcerated edges. Sometimes a few accessory vesicles formed 

 around the margin of these ulcerated sores. After the rupture of 

 the vesicle a brown scab formed, which might remain attached for 

 five or six weeks, or fall oft' in ten days or a fortnight, a smaller 

 one forming afterwards. A thin, watery fluid exuded from vmder 

 the scab, and the sore ultimately healed. 



Cameron examined the teats of several cows five or six weeks 



