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24. An order was made requiring the occupier not to supply
any milk from the dairy within the Plumstead district. This
was on May 15th, six days after the first case was notified,
four days after the first indications of an epidemic, and two
days after there was reasonable ground to attribute it to the
milk supply. It might have been expected that there would
have been no further trouble with the milk supply. But the
event was far otherwise. I soon heard that the employes of
the dairy were still selling milk.
25. In order to obtain evidence for a prosecution, they were
watched by the chief inspector early in the morning, and seen
to bring the churns out of the dairy and proceed straightway
and sell it to several houses. For this the occupier was summoned
to the police court on May 20th, and fined the full
penalty, £5. I believe some milk was sold even after this, but
probably not very much. It was, however, turned into butter,
the sale of which is not interfered with by the Act. On the
28th the cows were sold.
26. Up to May 15th, 25 cases were reported; on the 29th
the number had reached 92 ; in the following fortnight 47 fresh
cases occurred ; in the fortnight ending June 26th, 10 cases,
since when there has been a slow but steady diminution. (See
Table A.)
27. The epidemic may be said to have declined rapidly
from the 12th June, or about three weeks after the dairyman
was summoned to the Police Court. In the cases that occurred
after that date it was usually found that either the patient had
been ill for two or more weeks before a diagnosis was made, or
that there had been a previous case in the same house.
28. As a result of a house-to-house inspection in Barnfield
and Princes Roads (the roads most affected by the epidemic),