View report page

8
Concerning the etiology of these diseases, much has been
written during the last few years. It has been thought by many
that Scarlet Fever was often the outcome of a similar disease in the
cow, and could be disseminated through the medium of the milk.
This theory has been controverted by some eminent bacteriologists
who. however, oppose arguments to the facts which the other side
adduce. On the whole, it appears reasonable, from much evidence
which has been sifted, and brought to the front, by Sir George
Buchanan and others, that undoubted cases of Scarlet Fever have
been thus produced. The Hendon epidemic may be instanced in
illustration. More recently an epidemic claimed to be due to this
method of causation, was investigated by Dr. Hamer; and Dr.
Klein enunciated the same proposition at the last Medical
Congress, and his facts certainly seemed potent enough to support
his view that milk might be the means of initiating an epidemic of
Scarlet Fever. It is of course difficult to obtain an exhaustive
investigation, because many factors are brought into the question,
and each has to be eliminated as an exciting cause.
With regard to Diphtheria, I have before shown that since
that disease appeared more frequently, a corresponding reduction
in the number of cases of Croup became evident. When in
active practice, I regarded the diseases as similar in respect to
appearances and treatment. I am interested to observe that so
high an authority on most subjects concerned in "medicine," as
Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson, has recently advanced certain propositions
which he logically and consistently maintains. Amongst
others, I only extract those which are of interest to the non-professional
reader. "Diphtheric inflammations may be induced by
cold-catching, and when so induced they may become, as ordinary
colds often do, contagious to other persons. There is no difference
in nature between croup and diphtheria, excepting that in the
latter malady the inflammation has developed in high degree its
contagious properties. The spread of diphtheria in epidemics, in
hospitals and in families, is to be wholly accounted for under the
known laws of contagion, and that it is not probable that local
conditions, such as defective drainage, &c., apart from exposure to
cold and damp, take any material share in its production."
There is an almost universally prevailing popular opinion, that
diphtheria and defective drainage are associated in the relation of