STATUS OF PASTEURIZATION OF MILK. 3 
which causes the disease is definitely known it is impossible to say 
that it affords absolute protection. 
Since it is quite generally believed that the streptococci are the 
causative agents of septic sore throat, the ability of certain of this 
group of organisms to stand temperatures above that of pasteuriza- 
tion naturally presents a grave situation. If pathogenic streptococci 
are able to survive the usual process of pasteurization, the value of 
the process, from a sanitary standpoint, is materially lowered. 
Experience with the use of properly pasteurized milk and the de- 
termination of the thermal death point of pathogenic streptococci 
by various investigators indicate very clearly, however, that the 
thermal death point of these organisms is relatively low and that 
they are readily destroyed by proper pasteurization. Thus Ham- 
burger (17), who studied the epidemic of septic sore throat in 
Baltimore in 1912, traced this epidemic to a certain milk supply. 
Advice was given to boil all milk, and the dairy connected with 
the epidemic raised the temperature of its flash pasteurization to 
160° F.; then it changed to the holder process by which the mill 
was heated to 145° F. and held for a period of 30 minutes. The 
cases of sore throat that followed were neither so severe nor so 
numerous and did not follow the milk supply, but appeared to 
have been transmitted from individual to individual. Hamburger 
(18) also found that a streptococcus isolated from a patient having 
a case of sore throat was killed by heating in milk at 145° F. for 
30 minutes. 
Again, Capps and Miller (12) who studied the Chicago epi- 
demic of septic sore throat, traced it to a dairy where the milk was 
pasteurized by the flash process at 160° F. On certain dates they 
found that there was a pronounced failure to pasteurize and follow- 
ing these dates there were outbreaks of septic sore throat. These 
authors believed that the final responsibility for the epidemic rested 
on the inadequate and unreliable pasteurization. They state that 
the absolute protection of the children of the Michael Reese Hos- 
pital from infection by efficient pasteurization demonstrates this 
point. Bray (11), who studied an epidemic of tonsillitis of tuber- 
culous patients, traced the epidemic to a milk supply of one farm 
where a carrier presumably infected the milk. Forty cases of 
tonsillitis resulted among 400 people. As soon as the epidemic 
broke out the milk was pasteurized, and from that time only 1 
case appeared. 
From the results achieved from the proper pasteurization of milk 
it seems evident that the thermal death point of pathogenic strep- 
tococci, which cause septic sore throat, is relatively low. This belief 
