Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-18
SCARLET FEVER.
Of the Source o
Contagion
Conducted, Yesterday, by Local Board
of Health.

At the request of the local Board OF
Health, Sanitary Inspector Bean made
careful investigation, yesterday af-
ternocn, of the cases of scarlet fever
in the city to ascertain the primary
source of the contagion and the reason
for it's spread. The following cases
were found to be in families receiving
their milk supply from the Cottle farm
where a child of Ora Perkins has been
sick with scarlet fever since March 10.
Bessie Little, reported March 4
Ralph Small and sister, Margaret, re-
ported March 4.
Marian Fisher, reported March G.
Lee Hersey, reported March 8,
Davis child. East Side, reported March O.
Child of ora Perkins, reported March TO-
Mabel Lynn, reported March r.
Child of DR.. Moore, reported March T.
Florence LonSley, reported March a.
Counce boy, reported March H.
Sylvester Children reported March IA.
Harlow Davis, reported March IA.
Kingsley child reported March Is.
Commenting upon the above showing
DR.. w. H. Harris, the health officer,
says: For Mr.. Cummings to have
conveyed the contagion, it would have
been necessary for it to have commune
Gated itself to his clothing at some time
prior to the 4th, as all the other cases
among his customers have occurred
since that time. The contagion could
not possibly have been conveyed from
the Ora Perkins child at the Cottle
farm, to the cases which occurred prior
to March 10th, as it was not until that
date that this child was taken down
with the disease, and it would be unfair
to Mr.. Cummings to assume that he
had directly conveyed contagion from
the Ora Perkins child to cases which
have occurred since that date, as this
patient would not begin to peel before
March Is or is, and but As hours would
have elapsed between the date of the
disease in the Ora Perkins child and
that of the two cases which occurred
on March 18th, and but ~ hours
would have interviewed between that
case and the five cases reported on
March 14-the only remaining case that
of the Kingsley child, occurring just
five days after the appearance of the
disease at the Cottle farm. or about
the exact date on which the Ora Per-
lins child would be expected to peel.
The period of incubation in scarlet fe-
yer is generally supposed by physicians
to be from two to six days. COnse-
Quently contagion would probably not
have been conveyed from the Ora Per-
kins child until after March 49, the
probable date of the appearance of des-
quamation. 1t seems to me that if Mr..
Cummings has conveyed this contagion
he must have got the germs into his
clothing from one of the first cases.
possibly the Bessie Little case, where
milk was delivered on March Sd. In
view of these facts it would not be
possible for any person to determine
that Mr.. Cummings had conveyed con-
tagion until the appearance of the dis
ease in the Perkins child, and in the
light of the developments in connec-
ton with subsequent cases. I believe
that if he has been the instrument of
contagion the scarlet fever germs must
have infected his clothes and been
transmitted from them to the milk at
the time of milking. II is very evident
that at the same time Mr.. Cummings
has conveyed contagion to others,
either from his clothing or in the milk
he delivered, he also conveyed it to his
own home, so that he must certainly
have been ignorant of the fact. The
milk on this farm has not been carried
into the house. I was, moreover, in
formed that the cans We're also wash
ed and stored outside of the house and
no one has had any communication
with the Perkins child except the nurse.
| shall drive out to the farm, tonight,
and ask Ny. Cummings to deliver no
more milk for the present, and until
all possibility of further contagion is
past"