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36
of the attack, is capable of transmitting the infection. Vogl
goes much further, and closes the description of his experience
in a Munich garrison with the statement that the contagion,
as a rule, occurs through direct contact during the period of
incubation.
Although the dates of the illness of the foreman's child
would not, under the above conditions, render it impossible for
the milk to be contaminated from this source, there were circumstances
which would render contamination from such a source
extremely improbable.
Although cases have been described in which the infection
has been conveyed through the medium of a third person, who has
carried it in his clothes, very few instances of such indirect
transmission will bear critical examination, and there has been
no authenticated case where an article of food could be thus
affected.
The foreman had hardly been in contact with the child, and
there was no evidence that he had personally handled all the
milk. He supervised the distribution of the milk amongst the
various employees. The cases which were notified on Saturday,
April 22nd, occurred on five different rounds.
9
Inquiries were then made at the farm from which the milk
was supplied.
The dairy in question is one of several branches controlled
by a large firm. The firm obtains its milk from several farms,
but it was possible to trace the source of the milk supply to
each of the branches.
The Dairy obtained its milk from three farms in Berkshire.
At two of the farms there were no suspicious circumstances,
and the districts in which they were situated had been free
of Scarlet Fever for a considerable time.