2. MILK AS A CAUSE OF EPIDEMICS OF TYPHOID FEVER, 
SCARLET FEVER, AND DIPHTHERIA. 
By John W. Trask, 
Passed Assistant Surgeon , Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service. 
That milk, from the time it leaves the cow s udder, receives from 
its surroundings bacteria of various kinds is a matter of common 
knowledge. Certain of these organisms come 'from the teats of the 
cow and the dust and dirt of the stable, and are possibly in most 
cases harmless; others come from the hands of the milker and those 
handling the milk, and from the pails and cans used for milking, 
storage, and transportation. During the last fifty years there has 
been piling up a mass of evidence which would seem to show that 
milk may receive from man the specific organisms of certain infec- 
tious diseases, and that these organisms may retain their virulence 
for some time and produce the disease in susceptible individuals 
drinking the raw milk. Many epidemics supposedly spread in this 
way have been reported in the literature since 1857. Compilations of 
these cases have been made by Hart ° in England, Schlegtendal h in 
Germany, Car0e c in Denmark, and by Busey d and Kober e , R. G. 
Freeman t and H. B. Baker 0 in this country. 
Up to 1895 Hart and Busey and Kober had collected 240 such epi- 
demics. In addition to these, there are here presented 260 compiled 
from the literature and from special reports. (I desire here to 
acknowledge the great assistance rendered by the many health officers 
and other physicians who so kindly responded to the circular letter 
sent out by the Surgeon-General requesting reports of milk epi- 
a Hart (E.), Transactions Internat. Med. Cong. London, 1881, IV, 491, also 
Brit. Med. Jour. Loud., 1897, 1, 1167, 1229, and 1292. 
6 Schlegtendal, Deut. Vierteljahrsclir. f. Offentl. Gesundheitspflege, 1900, Bd. 
XXXII, 287. 
c Car0e (K.), Ugeskrift for Laeger, Kobenhavn, 1898, 5 R., V, p. 1009. 
d Busey (S. C.) and Kober (G. M.), Report of Health Officer of District of 
Columbia, 1895, p. 299. 
e Kober (G. M.), Senate Doc. 441, Fifty-seventh Congress, 1st session. 
f Freeman (R. G.), Medical Record, N. Y., 1896, XLIX, 433. 
9 Baker (H. B.), Annual Report Michigan State Board of Health, 1896. 
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