262 
to which reference has been made. The summary of the results states 
that — 
In 55 out of the 68 samples, or 80 per cent, streptococci were found. 
In 45 examinations, or 66 per cent, not only the finished product, but the 
milk or cream used in its manufacture were investigated. In 35 of the 45 
cases, or 77 per cent, streptococci were found in the milk or cream and in the 
ice cream as well. From 23, or 33 per cent of all examined, the streptococci 
were isolated in pure culture. They grew fairly easily. In only 3 samples 
were these organisms found in the cream alone, and where both cream and ice 
cream were examined only twice in the ice cream alone. The question of the 
original source of streptococci in ice cream is of importance from a sanitary 
standpoint. The conditions under which the mixtures are made and frozen, 
the cleansing of the utensils, etc., are such that very often almost any kind of 
bacterial infection may gain access to it. 
The usual source of streptococci in milk or cream, however, is the cow, and, 
judging from the results set forth here, it is the cream or milk entering into 
the ice cream which is the carrier of the germs. The cleanliness of the sur- 
roundings under which the ice cream is made does not seem to greatly affect 
the presence of streptococci. 
Since ice cream is a food which is so largely used by children and 
invalids whose digestive tracts are more readily open to bacterial 
infection than are those of the adult or the person in perfect health, 
the widespread presence of an organism to which so much responsi- 
bility for ill-doing is attached as appertains to the streptococcus, 
should be looked upon, with suspicion and every care possible taken to 
exclude it from such food products — at least until it has been proven 
innocuous. 
There seems to be a certain class of adults who have a predispo- 
sition against ice cream and who can not ingest it without a feeling 
of discomfort and in not a few cases symptoms of severe toxic 
poisoning result, manifesting the usual course of nausea, vomiting, 
diarrhea and pains in the abdomen, with cramps and muscular 
pains, often followed for a short time by general weakness, malaise, 
loss of appetite, and headache. Where samples of ice cream asso- 
ciated with such disturbances have been examined bacteriologically 
they have often shown the presence of overwhelming numbers of 
streptococci, constituting practically a pure culture, or associated 
with organisms such as B. coli or other bacteria known to be found 
under insanitary conditions. 
Where in the routine examination of a city’s milk supply the absence 
or presence of streptococci is made the subject of investigation, it has 
been found that approximately 40 per cent of the milk offered com- 
mercially contains these organisms, and in the cases of certain indi- 
vidual cities the results are much higher. According to the inves- 
tigations, already quoted by Pennington & Walter, 80 per cent of 
commercial ice cream contains these organisms. In an endeavor to 
