MILK AND SCARLET FEVER.

Press, Volume XLIII, Issue 6547, 16 September 1886, Page 3

MILK AND SCARLET FEVER.

A remarkable discovery—or, at all events, a moet valuable and suggestive feint pointing towards a new discovery—ie chronicled by the medical officer of the Local Government Board in » recently issued report. If I the investigators are upon the right track, Iwe have a totally new asd unexpected source indicated for one of the most deadly of juvenile maladies—tie scarlet fever. The discovery is one, too, which furcishea some reason for the belief that it will lead to the extinction, or, at least, the great restriction of the disease. It has long beenknown! that scarlet fever often follows the milk supply. Bat there was nothing in this to suggest that the milk itself was in any direct way chargeable with the production of the fever. If anyone in the most remota degree concerned in tending the cows or distributing the milk had suffered from the fever, or had been in contact with those who had suffered from it, the milk would, of course, form a moet efficient vehicle for diffusing the disease. This apparently explained the facts sufficiently; It appears, however, that the milk is more directly concerned than was supposed. The facts upon which this conclusion is based are these :— Numerous cases of scarlet fever in London were last December traced to a common source of milk supply. The dairy proved to have been admirably managed, and it was shown that no individuals concerned in it had been directly or indirectly connected with any case of scarlet fever. This aroused a suspicion that the cause was intimately connected with the milk itself. A series of investigations were carried on, the result of which was to show that certain cows had been suffering from an eruptive disease of the udder. Besearches made by Dr. Klein show that this disease was easily transmitted from cow to cow, and that; when calves were inoculated with it they suffered from the same disease. But whea the matter obtained from the sore udders was cultivated in deooctions, animals inoculated with it suffered from a much altered and aggravated disease, not distinguishable, in fact, from scarlet fever. It need hardly be Baid that the matter will not rest where it is. Further experiments will be carried on, and those who are prosecuting them believe that they gave got to the fans et origa of this devastating disease, and that the discovery of the cause will be nearly tantamount to a discovery of the remedy. —Scotsman.