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Rural District, Kingston, the Maidens and Coombe, Wimbledon
and Merton in Surrey, some 500 or 600 cases being
notified, Dr. W. H. Hamer, Medical Officer (General Purposes)
County of London, and Dr. T. Henry Jones, Acting
County Medical Officer of Health for Surrey, undertook the
investigations into the cause of the outbreak. The entire
supply of milk from the implicated depot had, however, first
been stopped by the Head Manager of the Dairy Company
immediately the information obtainable both in London and
Surrey confirmed the suspicion that the same milk supply was
the infecting agent in both Counties, this supply being derived
from one particular depot of the Company, that depot receiving
milk from some 31 farms, and being one of ten or twelve
similar depots owned by the Company in two Counties.
On Sunday, June 20th, these gentlemen went to the headquarters
of the Company in the country and were met by the
Manager and Secretary, who had arranged for all records to
be in readiness at this particular depot, 18 miles away.
From farm "X" it was recorded that milk had gone to
all the implicated vendors at the time when their supplies
became infective. It was decided at once to visit farm "X,"
and upon inquiry at the farm they were directed to the cottage
of the farm carter, in whose family cases of German Measles
were said to have occurred. At this cottage were found the
carter, his wife and three children, aged 8, 5, and 2 years;
the man in the course of his daily work habitually took the
milk from farm "X" to the depot; also lending a hand for
milking the cows whenever his help was wanted.
The history of illness in this family as recorded in the
first report of the gentlemen before mentioned was as follows:
June 11th—I.L. (5), sickened and was found to have a sore
throat; later she developed a rash.
June 13th—A.L. (2), developed a sore throat.
June 14th—G.L. (the father), had a headache and was "out
of sorts."
June 15th—G.L., his wife, and R.L. (8), developed sore
throats. G.L. stopped work on this day; he
had milked two cows on the preceding evening.
"On examination I.L. was found still to have a sore
throat, also some roughness of the skin on the soles of both
feet. A.L. was very poorly and had a sore throat, but no
peeling. R.L. was acutely ill, her throat much congested
with exudation on both tonsils, the glands of the neck swollen,
and she had a typical Scarlatinal rash on her chest, back and
limbs, but not on the face."
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