View report page

( 71 )
recollect the birth of the calf produced by her. Upon
examination of this cow on the lltli February, I noted that
she had here and there lost portions of her coat, and that
her buttocks and posterior udder were fouled and stained
bv excremental matter, and perhaps by vaginal discharge
as well. In this respect she presented a rather strong
contrast to most of the other cows.
"Few physicians will be disposed to deny a relation
between scarlatina and certain forms of febrile puerperal
disease in women. The contagion of scarlatina introduced
into the lying-in room has often, and with reason, been held
responsible for 'puerperal fever.' It does not matter for
my present purpose that there are other contagia having a
similar power of mischief there.
"Now, if it be true that there is one sort of relation
between scarlatina and accidents of the puerperal state,
another sort of relation becomes comparatively easy of
belief; while there would seem nothing improbable in the
further suggestion that all such relations would be qualified
by the passage of a common contagion through the system
of another animal.
"If scarlatina in man have other animal source than
human source, it may be that one such source is the cow
that has recently calved, a cow either not at all ill (except
for her parturition), or not so obviously ill as to prevent
her milk being used for human consumption. Milk of a
recently-delivered cow might become infective in more
than one way. Either it might, as a secretion of the cow,
contain infective matter that was circulating in the system
of the cow, or else uterine and other discharges of the cow
fouling her udder might by a careless milker be mixed
with her milk in the act of milking."