Where milk is pasteurized or boiled it is found that the mortality among children is greatly reduced. As a cause of sickness and death these diseases exceed in importance all other specific diseases previously referred to. These troubles have generally been explained as produced by bacteria of the putrefactive cla.s.s which find their way into the milk through the introduction of filth and dirt at time of milking.[120]

Flugge[121] has demonstrated that certain peptonizing species possess toxic properties for animals. Recent experimental inquiry[122] has demonstrated that the dysentery bacillus (Shiga) probably bears a causal relation to some of these summer complaints.

~Ptomaine poisoning.~ Many cases of poisoning from food products are also reported with adults. These are due to the formation of various toxic products, generally ptomaines, that are produced as a result of infection of foods by different bacteria. One of these substances, _tyrotoxicon_, was isolated by Vaughan[123] from cheese and various other products of milk, and found to possess the property of producing symptoms of poisoning similar to those that are noted in such cases. He attributes the production of this toxic effect to the decomposition of the elements in the milk induced by putrefactive forms of bacteria that develop where milk is improperly kept.[124] Often outbreaks of this character[125] a.s.sume the proportions of an epidemic, where a large number of persons use the tainted food.

FOOTNOTES:

[78] Hart, Trans. Int. Med. Cong., London, 1881, 4:491-544.

[79] Freeman, Med. Rec., March 28, 1896.

[80] Busey and Kober, Rept. Health Off. of Dist. of Col., Washington, D.

C., 1895, p. 299. These authors present in this report an elaborate article on morbific and infectious milk, giving a very complete bibliography of 180 numbers. They append to Hart's list (which is published in full) additional outbreaks which have occurred since, together with full data as to extent of epidemic, circ.u.mstances governing the outbreak, as well as name of original reporter and reference.

[81] Smith, Theo., Journ. of Expt. Med., 1898, 3:451.

[82] Dinwiddie, Bull. 57, Ark. Expt. Stat., June, 1899; Ravenel, Univ.

of Penn. Med. Bull., Sept. 1901.

[83] Ravenel, Journ. of Comp. Med. & Vet. Arch., Dec. 1897; Hartzell, Journ. Amer. Med. a.s.s'n, April 16, 1898.

[84] Stille, Brit. Med. Journ., Aug. 19, 1899.

[85] This test is made by injecting into the animal a small quant.i.ty of tuberculin, which is a sterilized glycerin extract of cultures of the tubercle bacillus. In a tuberculous animal, even in the very earliest phases of the disease, tuberculin causes a temporary fever that lasts for a few hours. By taking the temperature a number of times before and after injection it is possible to readily recognize any febrile condition. A positive diagnosis is made where the temperature after inoculation is at least 2.0 F. above the average normal, and where the reaction fever is continued for a period of some hours.

[86] Martin, Brit. Med. Journ. 1895, 1:937; Nocard, Les Tuberculoses animales, 1895.

[87] C. O. Jensen, Milch Kunde und Milch hygiene, p. 69.

[88] Ostertag, Milch Zeit., 22:672.

[89] Obermuller, Hyg. Rund., 1897, p. 712; Petri, Arb. a. d. Kais. Ges.

Amte, 1898, 14: 1; Hormann und Morgenroth, Hyg. Rund., 1898, p. 217.

[90] Rabinowitsch, Zeit. f. Hyg., 1897, 26: 90.

[91] Th. Smith. Journ. of Expt. Med., 1899, 4:217.

[92] Russell and Hastings, 18 Rept. Wis. Expt. Stat., 1901.

[93] Hesse, Zeit. f. Hyg., 1900, 34:346.

[94] Practically all of the finest b.u.t.ter made in Denmark is made from cream that has been pasteurized at temperatures varying from 160-185 F.

[95] Gebhardt, Virch. Arch., 1890, 119:12.

[96] Scheurlen, Arb. a. d. k. Ges. Amte, 1891, 7:269; Bang, Milch Zeit., 1893, p. 672.

[97] Moore, Year Book of U. S. Dept. Agr., 1895, p. 432.

[98] Weigel and Noack, Jahres. d. Ges. Med., 1890, p. 642; Weissenberg, Allg. med. Cent. Zeit., 1890, p. 1; Baum, Arch. f. Thierheilkunde, 1892, 18:16.

[99] Schneider, Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1893, No. 27; Frohner, Zeit f.

Fleisch u. Milchhygiene, 1891, p. 55.

[100] Feser, Deutsche Zeit. f. Thiermed., 1880, 6:166.

[101] Nocard, Bull. Gen., 1885, p. 54.

[102] Deutsche Viertelsjahr. f. offentl. Gesundheitspflege, 1890, 20:444.

[103] Zeit. f. Fleisch und Milch hygiene, 11:114.

[104] E. Roth, Deutsche Vierteljahresschr. f. offentl. Gesundheitspfl., 1890, 22:238

[105] S. W. North, London Pract.i.tioner, 1889, 43:393.

[106] Sedgwick and Chapin, Boston Med. & Surg. Journ., 1893, 129:485.

[107] Dabney, Phila. Med. News, 1893, 63:630.

[108] Welphy, London Lancet, 1894, 2:1085.

[109] Brit. Med. Journ., 1894, 1:815.

[110] Ma.s.s. Bd. Health Rept., 1894, p. 765.

[111] Turner, London Pract.i.tioner, 1892, 49:141; Munro, Brit. Med.

Journ., 1894, 2:829.

[112] Hankin, Brit. Med. Journ., 1894, 2:613.

[113] Heim (Arb. a. d. Kais. Gesundheitsamte, 1889, 5:303) finds it capable of living from 20-30 days in milk.

[114] Schuder (Zeit. f. Hyg., 1902, 38:34) examined the statistics of 638 typhoid epidemics. He found 71 per cent. due to infected drinking water, 17 per cent. to infected milk, and 3.5 per cent. caused by other forms of food.

[115] Kitasato. Arb. a. d. Kais. Gesundheitsamte, 1:470.

[116] Simpson, London Pract.i.tioner, 1887, 39:144.

[117] Swithinbank and Newman, Bacteriology of Milk, p. 341.

[118] Schottelius and Ellerhorst. Milch Zeit., 1897, pp. 40 and 73.

[119] Baginsky, Hyg. Rund., 1895, p. 176.

[120] Gaffky, Deutsch. med. Wochen., 18:14.

[121] Flugge. Zeit., f. Hyg., 17:272, 1894.