MILK-BORNE DISEASES 147 



Toward the end of January, 1907, a great epidemic 

 of scarlet fever and diphtheria swept over the city of 

 Chicago Uke a mediaeval plague. Altogether, in a 

 month, more than ten thousand cases 'of infectious 

 diseases were reported, including several hundred cases 

 of diphtheria and more than four thousand cases of 

 scarlet fever. There were over three hundred deaths. 

 It was proved that the outbreak was due to infected 

 milk, which came from two small places in Wisconsin 

 where there were cases of diphtheria and scarlet fever, 

 namely. Basset Station and Genoa Junction.*' The 

 former is a dairy-farming district where for months 

 scarlet fever had been prevalent, yet milk was regu- 

 larly shipped, without warning of any kind, to Evans- 

 ton and Chicago, with terrible results. The milk, it 

 is interesting to notice, was shipped by way of Genoa 

 Junction, where an outbreak of the disease took place, 

 thirty-two cases being reported out of a total popula- 

 tion of something like seven hundred. From these 

 two places the epidemic which assailed Chicago spread 

 with awful virulence. 



In connection with this Chicago epidemic it is 

 worth noticing that, in the bottling house of one of 



phase of the subject will find much information in the Report 

 on the Origin and Prevalence of Typhoid Fever in the District of 

 Columbia (Hygienic Laboratory, Bulletin No. 35), and the 

 Report of a conference on Sanitary Milk Production — Bureau 

 of Animal Industry, Circular 114. See Appendix 1. 



