Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-19
SCARLET FEVER EPIDEMIC.
Further Facts Developed by Investiga
tons of the Board of Health.

Dr. w. H. Harris, the local health
officer spent a large portion of the day,
yesterday, investigating the condition
of affairs at the Cottle farm In con-
versation with Journal reporter, DR..
Harris said:
'The more I reflected on this case
the more l was convinced that the con-
tagion on the milk route of Mr.. Cum
mings could not have come from the
Ora Perkins child. The milk cans are
washed in the barn and put out to dry
on rack in the sun. The barn is Il
hundred feet from the house. The milk
pals and strainers are washed in a
small house on the farm located some
500 yards distant from the main house.
The more l investigated the matter the
more reason I found for believing
that Mr.. Cummings himself had I'M
knowingly been a victim of scarlet
fever. Certainly such repeated infec-
tiOns of persons on his route on success
sive days would Indicate that the
poison must necessarily be of more
virulent character than would come
picion was strengthened by the state
.liCill VI ollc VI HIS CuSlolIlclS lIldt he
had complained in the early part of the
month Of a very severe. sore throat.
Acting upon this suspicion I visited
the farm and gave Mr.. Cummings q
very thorough examination. 1 learned
from him that for day or two prior to
March Sd he had suffered from a very
severe sore throat. He consulted a To-
cal physician who pronounced the
throat bad and prescribed for him with
the request that he return the next day
if his condition did not Improve. This
Mr.. Cummings failed to, do, but stated
to me that for the three succeeding
days he suffered severely with head
ache, backache, chills, and considerable
pain in the throat and the glands of the
neck. He also described the condition
of his tongue as that commonly spoken
of as strawberry tongue, which symp-
ton is very characteristic of scarlet
fever After getting these facts from
clothing in order that l might examine
his body. l found slight evidences re-
naming Of scaling upon the forearm.
This fact taken in connection with the
still existing congestion of the blood
vessels in the roof of the mouth, and a
slight enlargement of the glands of the
neck, was quite conclusive proof to my
mind that Mr.. Cummings had had
scarlet fever.
Mr.. Cummings stated to me that he
never entertained the suspicion for a
moment that he had the disease, and
consequently made no examination of
his body for an eruption. The eruption
might have been very slight and
scarcely noticeable, and still have pro-
duced contagion in the same degree as
a more pronounced case"
How would it be possible, doctor,
for man suffering from scarlet fever
to still keep about his work? asked the
Journal man.
physicians are well aware of the
fact that scarlet fever sometimes oc-
ours in so mild a form that the symp-
toms are less market than those Mr..
Cummings described to me. Indeed
cases have occurred where patients
have been unaware of the existence of
the disease until the skin began to
peel. Mr.. Cummings is naturally a
man of vigorous health, and might
easily have kept about in spite of the
disease. Mr.. Cummings is now under
strict quarantaine, and no further con-
tagion need be feared from this source
The quarantine established in the
Knowles case appears to have been eff
fective. Mr.. Knowles is not now liv-
ing at home, and neither his milk or
cans enter the house. AS a result no
lscarlet fever has developed among his
customers"