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41
We also inspected the surrounding premises which are laid out as
gardens, the greater part being grass.
After careful and minute inspection of the houses and their
surroundings we failed to discover anything which could be conducive
to or be a means of generating Typhoid Fever.
The simultaneous manner in which these persons were attacked
with the disease and residing as they do some distance apart from each
other would cause one to look for a general means of conveyance of
the Fever germs.
Having eliminated any connection of the disease with the houses
and their surroundings one must look further for a probable cause.
I find that all these persons were supplied with milk from the
same dairy.
At "Frankfort House" the children drank from 10 to 12 pints
daily.
At "Graham Lodge" the cook, the person attacked, was in the
habit of taking milk for her supper.
At Mr. Field's the person attacked drank freely of the milk whilst
it was refused by others in the house, owing to the peculiar taste and
smell which it had about a week before the disease appeared and they
are all quite well.
This information was communicated to me by Mrs. Field.
Whether the milk was the means of conveying this disease or not
it is impossible to say, but it certainly is a strange coincidence,
and more especially when we find that 14 recorded cases in the
adjoining sub-district of Clapham were supplied with milk from the
same dairy.
The dairy from which the milk was supplied has been in existence
for 25 years, portions of the milk being from cows on the premises and
some from farms at Axminster.
I think we must look on this matter as one of those accidental
circumstances, which we feel sure has existed but which must be very
difficult to discover.
An enquiry has been made at each house on the Common in this
sub-district, and no other case has been discovered.
A Eeport on the Dairy will be presented in conjunction with the
Officers of Clapham, in which District it is situated.
(Signed) JOS. OAK MAN,
Medical Officer of Health for Western Battersea.
The Priory,
High Street, Battersea.
July 20, 1882.
The investigation resulted in a Report from Dr.
Parsons, in which he attributed the outbreak of the
disease to the milk supply.