48 
PKEVENTION OF MILK EPIDEMICS. 
Inspection and regulation of the production, handling, and sale of 
milk will lessen the number of milk epidemics. In cities the proper 
charging of each case of scarlet fever, diphtheria, and typhoid fever 
to the dairy on whose route it occurs will often reveal milk outbreaks, 
which can then be suppressed before reaching too great proportions. 
The most rigid inspection and regulation practicable at the present 
time, however, are impotent to prevent chronic bacillus carriers from 
being employed on milk farms and at dairies. They are also unable 
to keep mild ambulant cases of infectious diseases from being so en- 
gaged, for the reason that such cases can often not be diagnosed until 
after other cases have developed. Soper’s case ° of “ Typhoid Mary ” 
was a constant danger in her capacity as family cook to the members 
of the family in which she happened to be employed and to visitors 
eating of the salads and food prepared by her, but what might have 
happened had she been employed in the handling of milk distributed 
over a large city route can only be surmised. 
The only way to prevent these epidemics entirely would appear to 
be to pasteurize or sterilize the milk, either at the dairy before de- 
livery to the consumer or in the household after delivery. 
“Soper (George A.), Jour. Am. Med. Assn., June 15, 1907, p. 2019. 
