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6
"October 21st, 1880.—In my last Report I informed the Committee
of the outbreak of scarlet fever in Paddington, and expressed
the opinion that it was caused by the milk supplied by a firm of wellknown
dairymen in this parish. Subsequently I examined all the
persons employed by that firm, and many of their families, and
inspected also the premises of the dairymen. Having failed to find
any trace of scarlet fever, I determined to inspect the farms whence
their supply of milk is obtained, and have been, with that view, to
Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. There
I spent five days in making my investigations; and in Oxfordshire I
found that scarlet fever had for some time extensively prevailed in the
village of Tetsworth, where many of the milkers employed at the
neighbouring farms reside. Two of those farms supplied the London
dairymen referred to with milk. On one of those two farms five milkers
were employed; and I found that in the families of three of them
some of the children have recently suffered from scarlet fever. At the
other farm three milkers were employed, and scarlet fever had appeared
in all three families, one case having terminated fatally. I have thus
proved to my own satisfaction that the outbreak in Paddington was due
to contaminated or infected milk supplied by those farms, and that no
blame whatever attaches to the London dairymen, as they were ignorant
of the existence of scarlet fever at Tetsworth, as was also the Medical
Officer of Health for the district. The milk from the two infected
farms was immediately discontinued."
Statistics and further observations are reserved until after
the termination of the epidemic.