The Washington herald., 1912-03-16

but in September, 1906, to Novem-
Der, 1907. twenty-eight cases had
developed. The patients fell i'll at
irregular intervals, and always in
groups of from three to FIVE; care
full search was made as to the pos
sible introduction of the disease,
but, in spite of all precaution, others
continued to be attacked; detailed
investigation pointed to the milk as
the carrier of infection. All milk
was carefully Stcrili=cd, and, there
fore, if it were the cause, it was
necessarily due to dcfccti5e mcth-
DDS or to subsequent contamination.
a new sterilizing plant was in
stalled, and all handling of milk
after heating was limited to two
persons, a man and woman.
But still cases dcVcIOtcd, and all
evidence continued to point to the
milk. 1t was therefore concluded
that infectious material reached the
milk after sterilization, and it was
decided to find whether one of the
two persons handling it was a ba-
cilluS carrier. The woman milk
handler was removed from the
dairy, and her feces examined.
Pure culture of the typhoid bacillus
were isolated from her stools. She
was permanently removed from the
dairy, and after lapse of the usual
incubation period of two weeks, no
new cases had developed up to the
time of the report.
DR.. Charles F.. North, in the
Medical Report of July -, 1911,
referring to a similar case traced
by the health department to a
typhoid carrier employed in the
dairy, explains that this particular
typhoid carriers work consisted of
putting caps on the glass bottles
after they had been filled with milk
Then DR.. North continues: A
visit to any of the large pasteuriza-
ton establishments will show that
there are numerous opportunities
for the reinfection of milk after
pasteurization. When milk leaves
the heater it has to pass over cool
ing apparatus. and through pipes
into tanks or bottle filling machines.
From these it runs into the glass
bottles, which are then capped. 1t
is exposed to the surface of the ap-
paratus and pipes and to glass bot
ties and caps, and to the air of the
bottle filling room and to the fingers
of the employees. 1t may be con-
taminated by any accidental imper-
fection in the sanitary control of
these sources of. infection"
1t will be readily seen that even
if the milk was pasteurized these
outbreaks would still have occurred,
for the reason that the process of
bottling and Gaping takes place
after the pasteurization has been ac-
complished.
That such is very often the case
can readily be seen by referring to
the reports of the health depart
ment, especially for the year of
1908 (p. So, which states that
careful inspection has been made
of all plants where pasteurization is
to be done, and grave abuses have
been found in the handling of the
milk during the pasteurization and
afterward.
In a number of instances, after
the milk has been pasteurized, it
has become contaminated BY ex-
poSure to the air, by being stored
in unclean vats or dirty containers
not properly capped, or by not be-
ing kept at a sufficiently low tem-
perature during transportation"
And further, on page 81, many
tests have been made of the washed
bottles used for bottling pasteurized
milk, TO ascertain if they were ster-
lie, as required by law; some bottles
have been found to contain no bac-
terra, many others which were sup
posed to be sterile were found to
contain 1000 to 1000 bacteria per
c. c."
Now, since milk is one of the
best mediums for growing germs, it
follows that bottles left at homes
where there are cases of illness such
as scarlet fever, typhoid fever, or
diphtheria, if rehlled without being
properly sterilized, are certainly a
source of much danger to the con-
surner.