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63
Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine.
Chelsea Gardens,
Grosvenor Road, S.W.,
May 11th, 1900.
Dr. J. King Warry,
Town Hall, Hackney.
Dear Sir,
I beg to inform you that we have now completed the examination of the
nine samples of milk (labelled 1-7 and S x x x x 1 and 2) which you forwarded
to this Institute on 26th and 28th April for bacteriological examination in
connexion with an epidemic of sore throat in your district.
I have to report that we have been unable to obtain any definite results
from our examination of the milks. In the single case in which we had an
opportunity of examining the membrane from the throat (marked X)
micrococci only were isolated
I may point out that a diagnosis is most difficult in dealing with such
cases, as unfortunately, we still know so little regarding the morbid agents to
which such outbreaks are undoubtedly due, and which may readily find access
to the body through food channels. We have a parallel instance in the case
of scarlet fever, the dissemination of which has at times been traced back to a
tainted milk supply by strong circumstantial evidence, although the living
agent of the disease is still unknown.
Regretting that we have been unable to throw light on the matter,
I am, Dear Sir,
Yours truly,
(Signed) ALLAN MACFADYEN,
Director.
This report does not require much comment. It does not help in
the elucidation of the enquiry. It proves nothing; it disproves
nothing: and further, our want of knowledge as to the active agent
of septic sore throat disease, the small amount of milk operated upon,
the method of taking the sample, the probability that the infective
agent has ceased to be in the milk at the time the samples were taken,
are all factors which may prevent a positive result; and it has for
some time past been acknowledged upon substantial evidence that milk
has been the means of conveying the organisms of the specific
infectious fevers, e.g., scarlet fever, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis,