POISONOTTS MILK AND MILK-PANICS. 71 



papers and the non-technical newspapers vied with one 

 another in sensational descriptions of the " Outbreak of Ty- 

 phoid Fever," its source, and the wickedness or recklessness 

 of the milk-company which had caused it. 



At the outset of the panic, the leading journal published a 

 list of twenty-three households wherein inmates were said to 

 have been poisoned by the Dairy lieform Company. With 

 the assistance of my friend Mr. Cooper, 1 took the trouble 

 to inquire into some of these cases. In one of these house- 

 holds thei'e was no one ill, and there had been no one ill. 

 In another household, there had been only a little summer 

 diarrhoea. In a third, the lady had been taken ill in Munich, 

 where t3^ihoid fever is known to be rife. In a fourth, where 

 the servants were affected, the water in the kitchen was bad, 

 the general supply to the house being good. The servant 

 had, moreover, been a day's journey into the country during 

 the very hot weather, and had been overheated. I did not 

 pursue the investigation further. 



The official report on the condition of the farms whence the 

 milk-company derive their supply of milk, has not yet been 

 published. A gentleman who attended on behalf of the Dairy 

 Eeform Company, has, however, written to The Times news- 

 paper a letter purporting to give an outline of the conclusions 

 arrived at by the commission. Prom this letter we gather 

 that at the time of the inquiry there were no cases of typhoid 

 on any of the farms, and that there had been no recent cases. 

 Instead, however, of calling public attention to that most 

 satisfactory result of the inquiry, the writer of the letter 

 dwelt upon a very doubtful case which had occurred on one 

 of the farms at a rather remote period. The supposed 

 epidemic was alleged to be at its height about the 10th of 

 August, and before the beginning of August notliing had been 

 heard of any epidemic. On the supposition of infection from 

 one of the farms, we should hardly look for the case before 



