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source of the milk revealed the fact that it was derived from 36
farms in Wiltshire, and, by February 19th, it had been found that
at a certain farm one child had been ill for weeks with typhoid
fever.
The father of the child, though under contract to inform the
London purveyor of any case of illness at his farm, had omitted in
this case to do so, and had allayed suspicion by using an ordinary
billhead instead of the proper contract note, as if he had been
temporarily without the usual forms.
The supply of milk from this farm was at once stopped, and a
little later the place was visited by Dr. Caldwell Smith and myself,
in company with Dr. Streeten, the Medical Officer of Health for
Swindon and other districts.
By this time the mother of the child just alluded to was also
recognised to be suffering from typhoid, and we learned that some
months previously another child belonging to the same family had
suffered from an illness thought at the time to be tuberculous
meningitis. We found, moreover, that one of the farm hands was
said to be ill with pneumonia, and suggested further investigation.
The case turned out to be typhoid. Assuming that the cases in
Barnes and Wandsworth were indeed connected with the state of
affairs at this farm in Wiltshire, it may be asked what was the
exact nature of the relation. From a comparison of dates it
appeared probable that the infection might have been due to a
misuse of certain utensils during the first and second weeks in
January, when the second child was sickening. But what was the
source of the original infection ? The most careful enquiry failed
to reveal the most remote contingency that we could think of for
the infection of the first child, who, at the time, was thought to
have tuberculous meningitis.
Only the water supply of the farm from a neighbouring hill
could be implicated by those who are not ashamed to believe in the