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77
and any butter made from such infected material
will as a consequence become contaminated and
be the more dangerous, because we cannot
sterilise or boil butter as we can milk.
The case-mortality amongst the persons
attacked in the outbreak now under review was
11 per cent.
At first sight this appears low, when compared
with 17 per cent. which represents the average
(1889-1898) case-mortality amongst patients
treated for the same disease at the Metropolitan
Asylums Board's and other hospitals; but when
the fact is considered, that the deaths in these
institutions are largely augmented by those of
a great number of ill-nourished, unhealthy
children, contributed by all sorts and conditions
of persons from an area containing a population
of upwards of four millions and a half, and that
no weaklings of this description were, from the
very nature of the business, employed at
Holborn Circus, it must be admitted that the
type of the disorder was sufficiently severe to be
regarded with interest.