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17
Finally of the remaining two, it was shown that enteric
fever had occurred among those who consumed in the neighbouring
town the milk from one of these farms, and that a
case of enteric fever had occurred among the residents on
the farm itself.
The immediate cause of the infection of the milk was not
obvious. No ailment could be discovered amongst the cattle
which would give rise to suspicion. A cesspit in proximity to
a well from which water was drawn for washing the cans
was all that could be found.
The circumstances under which milk becomes infected are
too often involved in obscurity, but while it must be left to
the future to discover the cause, it is well deserving of notice
that the boiling of milk appears to deprive it of its infective
properties, and that it is thus within the power of every
householder to guard his household against disease communicated
by milk.
A further lesson may be learnt from this outbreak, and that
is the need which exists for a system by which information
of all cases of infectious disease should be reported to the
Medical Officer of Health. In the absence of such system very
considerable mischief is occasioned before the outbreak comes
to be suspected, it is indeed often only when deaths have
resulted, that the Medical Officer of Health is made aware of
what has taken place. But for the action of one or two medical
men practising in our parish in calling attention to the
large number of enteric fever cases which were coming under
their observation, there is no question but that a much
greater calamity would have befallen our parish than that
which occurred on this occasion. But although it may be
a cause of satisfaction to feel that more sickness might have
occurred and more deaths have resulted, it cannot be forgotten
that a large proportion of nearly 500 persons, were
attacked with dangerous, and in many cases, fatal illness for
want of the system for which I would plead.
Before leaving this subject I would, on behalf of the milk
vendor, as well as the milk consumer, urge the necessity for
the books of the former to be so kept that it would be possible
to tell at a glance whether infectious illnesses occurring
in a neighbourhood were related to milk received from one
farm or another. At the present time all the milk supplies