An Appeal to Bossie

Bossie, bossie, how can you++

Make us feel so awful blue?

How can you us milk deny

When we are so very dry?

Though we long to take a drink

From your milk we have to shrink,

And we cannot come to terms

With your scarlet fever germs.

Bossie, bossie, do not eat

Anything that is un-neat;

Don’t partake of flannel red,

Or of the geranium bed.

Shun all scarlet tinted things,

Butterflies with painted wings,

Don’t be feverish or hot,

Or ill-tempered in the lot.

Bossie, bossie, how we long

For the milk so white and strong,

For the glass that cheers our face

But don’t put us off our base.

Bossie, bossie, come to terms,

give the hook to all those germs;

Give down milk from microbes free,

Or we’ll kick the bucket, see?

April 28, ‘10

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/VCBBBF

“An unusually extensive milk-borne outbreak of scarlet fever occurred in Boston during April and May, 1910. A total of 842 cases were reported from Boston and the surrounding towns of Chelsea, Winthrop, Cambridge, Somerville, Malden, and Everett. Investigation showed the most of the cases occurred on the route of a large milk contractor… The cases appeared suddenly April 25th, and the outbreak ceased May 7th. The epidemic reached its highest mark on April 29th, when 128 cases were reported… The source of the infection could not be traced, although it probably consisted of a ‘missed’ case on one of the 250 dairy farms from which the dealer obtained this particular supply of milk" Rosenau, M. J., Whipple, G. C., Trask, J. W., & Salmon, T. W. (1921). Preventive medicine and hygiene. New York and London: D. Appleton

http://gslis.simmons.edu/daisie/exhibits/show/aboutdaisie/historyevents/scarlet-fever