The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-03
MRS, M. .J.DARCAN DEAD; INFECTION OF MILK BLAMED Victim Had Been Caring For Daughter Stricken With
 Same Malady. OFFICIALS INSPECT BEAVER BROOK FARM State and County Health Investigators Busy at
 Milford.

Victim of the Strepoccocic infection that has struck fear into the hearts of Bridgeporters, Mrs. Mary J. Dargan. widow of Joseph Dargan, of S6 Wash ipgton avenue, died this morning.
 Mrs. Dargan has acted as nurse for her daughter. Miss Anne Dargan, stenographer of the health department, who was suffering from septic sore throat. She made herself a martyr to perform an act of mercy. .N
 Mrs. pargan died at o'clock this morning, after an illness of little more than a week. Her daughter had passed the critical stage when Mrs. Dargan was stricken.
 Inquiry has again shown a coinci- dence, in that both mother and daugh- ter drank milk from the Beaver Brook farm. pr. W. H. Curley gave ''acute tonsilitis,'' in the death certificate, as the cause.
 The coincidence that the late Harry A. McElroy and his daughter, Lorene, were fond of milk, and both had drunk much of it shortly before stricken fa- tally, has been noted. Physicians be- believe their deaths are traceable to StreptOcOcclc infection.
 The many death certificates that bear ''lobar pneumonia" as the cause of death and circumstances in connec- ton with the deaths cause physicians to believe that the streptococcic dis ease germ claimed many of its vic- tims through pneumonia
 With few new cases being reported to the health department the great number of sufferers from sore. throat about the city is being given the clos est attention, and effort is still being made to sound the depths from which the infection started.
 Up to the present time the state, county and city boards of health have been unable to definitely locate the cause of initial infection. The Beaver Brook farm owners have issued a based upon reports of wide- ly known milk experts declaring that their milk is pure.
 They most emphatically assert that they have not purchased milk far sale in any large city and that the utmost care has been used in handling and Declaration is made that no state or city health department has found inflammation or infection in tho herd.
 In the hope of definitely concluding what may have been the cause ofsin- lection and whether this milk is to be again permitted in Bridgeport Dr. B. T. Black, secretary of the state board of health, Dr. B. A. Mcclellan, city health officer and Attorney George E. Hill. county health officer. met today at Milford, where another inspection of premises and cows is being made at Beaver Brook Farm.
 In some quarters a theory has per- been advanced that while the cows in this herd may not have been flies may have carried germs into the milk house. This is borne out in recommendations of the state board of health last week that screens be placed on the milk-house to prevent the access of flies and that all bottles be sterilized in a prescribed manner
 Greater apprehension is caused in medical circles today because of the fart that the source of disease has not been ascertained, than by the epi- demic itself. For this reason health officers will make the closest examina- ton today and in the future.