DIPHTHERIA PRODUCED BY MILK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 62, 13 November 1880, Page 4

DIPHTHERIA PRODUCED BY MILK.

One of the most mysterious and dreadful scourges that afflict the Colonies is tbe ie)l disease known as diphtheria. No place, no matter how excellently situated according to all the known laws of health, is secure from its terrible ravages. In Wellington a short time ago it entered the home of a Wellington citizen and carried off a. fine ted of 16. Three mote imp&toß o$ th& »m»b house are now w down M wjQj the same disease. The house alluded to is situated on a breezy hill-top, just overlooking the harbour, No other house is near it.

It has all the latest appliances for <, drainage that modern science has de- .^. vised. Its owener is in very comfortable circumstances. In brief, it is - ttne of the last places in the world fchaif should be visited bj epidemic or ,«toaaai<? aisea^e. JHov did dipataexfo

find its way thither? This is indeed a puzzle. We might cite numerous instances in regard to diphtheria, which are fully as mysterious. We remember an instance where a well-to-do farmer in Yictom, -wloo carried on his operations on the most scientific sanitary principles, lost his wife and eight children all in one week from diphtheria. Yet, his house was not near any other, and it was the first in which the scourge appeared. Just now there is an epidemic of diphtheria raging Victoria, and its ravages are most severe in remoie country "villages, -wbere diseases of the Mnd should be literally unknown. How is this ? We think the solution of this vitally interesting problem may be found in milk. Last year there was an alarming epidemic of diphtheria in London. A thorough investigation was made as to the cause of the outbreak. The report has just been published. The gist of it is that the disease .was produced by milk. No less than two hundred and. sixty-four cases, thirty-eight of which proved fatal, were absolutely proved to have been caused by milk supplied by one dairyman. The evidence was conclusive that the disease existed in the milk as it came from the cow, and could not have been communicated by the man who milked the cows, or during the process of serving the customers. Those who have inspected dairy farms will not, perhaps, be so astonished as the ordinary observer at such an extraordinary result. There are in "Wellington milking-yards with kneJy surroundings that might fairZy be credited with any disease of the diphtheria type. Some yards that we wot of are only fit for pigs to wallow in. — Wellington Chronicle.