Legal principles of public health administration / by Henry Bixby Hemenway ; introduction by John Henry Wigmore.

  • Hemenway, Henry Bixby, 1856-1931.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Legal principles of public health administration / by Henry Bixby Hemenway ; introduction by John Henry Wigmore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    from a healthy animal. Starting with 400 bacteria per cubic centimeter, in fourteen hours there were only 500; but in 24 hours the number had reached 5,000. In 36 hours the number had reached 60,000; 48 hours, 366,000; and in 60 hours, 780,000. Since many diseases are the result of bacterial action, it is very apparent that the danger is far greater in the use of old milk than in that which is fresh. As it is well known that typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, measles, tuber- culosis, and probably other diseases are often spread through the agency of milk, it is clear that the length- ened time between the cow and the user necessitates greater care and cleanliness in the handling of busi- ness. The change in conditions introduces another element of danger. Formerly a germ dropped in a pail of milk would, even if given time, infect only a few gallons at the most. Infection on a dairy farm would endanger only a few families in a limited area. Today, the large milk companies collect the fluid in bottling establish- ments, and a single infected pailful may easily infect several carloads. The result might endanger a large population, scattered widely through urban territory. This demands a more careful supervision than was re- quired before. The man who buys milk from his next door neighbor, (who thus disposes of the surplus left after supplying his own family from the cow which he keeps in an ad- jacent vacant lot), can without trouble satisfy himself as to the degree of danger which he thus risks. If the children of the owner of the cow be ill with an in- fectious disease, the neighborhood knows it. If the cow be sick, or if she be kept in a filthy condition, that