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business, despite the provision in the Dairies Order which is
directed to prevent the milk of diseased cows being mixed with
other milk, or sold or used as human food. Singularly enough,
however, Dr. Klein's investigations appear to prove that the milk
itself, as found in the cow's udder, is not infective. The germs
which produce the human disease appear to be carried down to the
pail in the act of milking, by pressure of the milker's hands on
the sores on the teats, in the form of scales and exuded lymph; just
as the "peeling" skin of the hands of a person convalescing from
scarlet fever might be rubbed off, in the act of milking, and
fall into the pail, and so give rise to scarlet fever in consumers
of the unboiled milk. Once in the pail the infective
matter—whether derived from the cow, in the one case, or from
the milker, in the other case—finds in the milk a fluid adapted for
the "cultivation," or multiplication by development and growth,
of the specific organism, a small quantity of which, from a
single cow, may suffice to contaminate the mixed milk of a
dairy, and to infect great numbers of susceptible persons.
It is quite unnecessary to expatiate on the importance of the
subject, and it is satisfactory to know that the Medical Officer
to the Board proposes that a portion of the grant annually made
by Parliament for the scientific purposes of the Board shall be
allotted to further study of the relations that exist between
human scarlatina and diseases of animals. We can all concur,
moreover, in the view of Mr. Power and Dr. Klein's reports,
expressed by Dr. Buchanan, that "they will properly form a
starting-point for fresh observation and experiment by
all who have the opportunity of investigating the new and promising
fields of research that are opened by the recent experiences of
Hendon." The connexion between localised outbreaks of scarlet
fever and the consumption of milk had been well established by
repeated experiences, but previous to Mr. Power's enquiry the
dissemination of the disease, through milk, had been attributed to
the contamination of the milk by the introduction of scarlatina
poison of human origin, either from the milker's hands or by