London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

St Giles (Camden) 1881

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Giles District]

This page requires JavaScript

( 67 )
his presence at 13 only of the 43 infected houses could
have extended the outbreak to the other 30 bouses.
The Milk at the Dairy.
The milk porter was the only one attacked on the
establishment; he suffered from a slight attack, and his
children suffered from ordinary attacks ; being daily occupied
at the milk shop, he was a centre of contagion, and
could have communicated fever to persons brought in
contact with him.
Could this man have infected the milk at the shop ?
This question I am unable to solve. If he could, it then
appears that milk has a stronger affinity for the poison
of infectious disease than is supposed by medical authorities.
The Milk at the Farm.
No disease could be traced at the farm and its surroundings
; but, if the evidence is reliable respecting the
illness amongst the staff at the railway terminus, it implies
the possibility of the milk being infected before it reached
the dairyman's shop. Whether the milk was so infected,
either at the farm, or in transit, the cause is not obvious.
Much sympathy is due to the dairyman, who throughout
the inquiry behaved in the most straightforward and
honourable manner.
Sanitary Work.
In Table VI. in the Appendix will be found a summary
of the sanitary work for the past year. Some of the
improvements there tabulated were carried out under the
supervision of the sanitary inspector without any official
e 2