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16
II. That the books of Dairy B. include the names of
several thousands of customers, and having reference
to the streets where six out of the seven
infected persons live, the houses supplied by Dairy
B. correspond to 60 per cent. of the whole number;
hence the connection between the infected houses
and Dairy B. is incidental only.
The circumstances connected with case 7, on the other
hand, strengthen the assumption against Dairy B. The
patient did not live in the usual round of Dairy B. The
truck carrying milk was observed to enter the street and
leave it without stopping before the door of any other
resident. Dairy B. had certainly not many customers here,
perhaps only one, and that customer was the only resident
who had contracted Typhoid fever.
The enquiry on Saturday, March 31st, had only advanced
as far as to ear-mark Dairy B. as a place under suspicion;
two days later it advanced a stage further.
On Monday, April 2nd, cases were notified from Gresham
Road and Ridgway Road; of the former there is little to
say except that the patient had been in the habit of drinking
milk obtained at Dairy B. The circumstances of the
latter, however, are out of the ordinary; the subject of
notification is a charwoman, and it was stated on enquiry
that she bought milk at Dairy E.; on further investigation
it was ascertained that her present illness had commenced
whilst staying at a flat in Dover Mansions, at which place
she was in the habit of drinking milk from Dairy B. These
additional cases, coming to my knowledge at a time when
Dairy B. was already under suspicion, supplied confirmatory
evidence of a character that, in my opinion, warranted
interference. What action was then taken is referred to
below; but before entering on another matter, permit me