Diseases connected with Milk.

It is a well-known fact that if milk is allowed to stand for some time it turns sour and coagulates. Sour milk is liable to cause sickness and diarrhoea in children, and under some conditions the parasitic disease of the mouth known as "thrush" has been caused by this.

It is possible that certain diseases from which the cow suffers may be transmitted through the milk; instances of scarlet fever, diphtheria, and foot and mouth disease have been recorded.  Milk containing the germs of tubercule or consumption may give rise to tuberculosis in children.

Comment: Nowadays, most of us take it for granted that the milk we drink is safe for consumption. Back in the old days, people had to boil milk, freshly collected from cows, before consuming it to reduce the possibility of diseases. Indeed, we leave it to a long or short supply chain depending on where we live. Along this chain so many things can go so wrong and we have to thank the standards setting agencies that ensure that our milk is safe. However, should a major disaster happen, it would be good to understand (as I show below) how important it is to transport, store, process milk in very clean and hygienic ways.

Milk, however, more frequently acts as a carrier of infection from other human beings, and owing to the presence of lax system of dairy inspection it is advisable to avoid risk by actually boiling the milk for three to four minutes. In addition to the danger mentioned above of disease being transmitted from the cow through the mil, there is always the possibility of:

1. Accidental contamination from an outside source, such as may happen when scarlet fever or diphtheria occurs at the dairy or farm, or at the house of one of the workpeople.
2. The washing of the milk cans or other vessels with water which has become contaminated in some way (as from sewage percolating into a well), and germs of cholera or typhoid fever thereby entering the milk.
3. Or in some cases milk may be adulterated with such water.

In those epidemics of scarlet fever which have been traced to milk, it is usually found that the milk has been infected through human agency by a previous case of the disease at the farm or dairy.

A milk epidemic is characterised by the suddenness with which it makes its appearance, the sufferers being usually attacked about the same time, and the houses affected being as a rule those which have received milk from the same source. Owing to the ease with which milk transmits diseases, the greatest possible cleanliness should be observed in collecting, storing, and distributing milk. Milk should be thoroughly cooled after being obtained from the cow before being sent out. Special attention should be paid to dairy inspection.

It has also been proved that the milk from cows suffering from tuberculosis can convey that disease to animals and also to human beings.

Comments: At the time this book was written, about 65,000 people died from tuberculosis in England and Wales! The main cause was the transmission of the disease through contaminated milk, hence the emphasis on such a disease in the text above. Only after did Pasteurization come into play. Penicilin had not yet been invented (or commercialised - depending on the edition of the book you read) and hence Scarlet Fever could be a deadly disease (it was not easy to kill bacteria....with no antibiotics).