Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-17
REPORT MADE ON
TYPHOID FEVER
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Continued from First Page)
and multplies in warm milk with great
rapidity and that the milk may be tenn
ing with these organisms without appre-
ciably changing its appearance, odor or
taste. The danger Is, therefore, hidden
and insidious
Another source of danger is the small
corner grocery where milk is retailed.
AT such places often as little as / or 2
cents worth of milk Is sold at a time from
pint or quart bottles.
In several instances we found a close
association between the family life of the
patient and the business. The same hands
that nurse the sick often purvey the milk
Ine patient is treated in a room adjoining
the store. Flies swarm in and out. The
chances of spreading the infection in this
and many other ways must be great
Legislative Correction Needed.
The small retailers. while subject to
inspection, are immune from the sanitary
restrictions of the health department. This
state of affairs evidently needs legislative
correction. The milk supplied the citizen
OF the District is, for the most part, too
old, too dirty and too warm. Milk is not
Kept cold, especially in transit from the
farm to the city dairy and on the delivery
householder
Of the 1I2 samples of milk tested only
~ contained less than 100000 bacteria per
cubic centimeter. The average of all the
samples examined was % 1874 $50 per cubic
centlmeter Hence the great bulk of the
milk sold in Washington during the sum-
mer months would have been considered
adulterated and condemned in New York
and prohibited from sale in Boston on
account OF the temperature or the number
OF bacteria. Practically all of the SAMPLES
examined contained gas-fermentins organ
isms' indicating contamination with cow
dung and other extraneous matter
MOST OF the samples studied contained
more visible foreign matter (dirt) than has
a place in clean milk So far as the citv
dalrles themselves were concerned, many
defects were found.
Examples Cited.
For instance. the location of many
diaries is pernicious in that they abut
upon unkept alleys and are in the neigh
borhood of squalid insanitary settlements.
Inc stables in the rear of practically all
the dairies visited provide breeding places
doors. -
Files are attracted by the milk and are
abundant In nearly all the dairies In some
instances the water closets are too near to
the milk. Only one of the dairies visited
was properly screened. In most instances
no Intelligent warfare is waged against
the flies. At one dairy the milk from vari
Gus sources is mixed in large vat re-
sembling bathtub. This vat was open at
the time of the inspection. and from ten to
fifteen flies were being mixed up with the
milk.
Eat most of the diaries the hands of the
employees who come into contact with the
milk were dirty and their clothing not
changed or covered with a clean apron.
What Employees Should Wear.
Employees who handle milk should be re-
quired to wear clean Numbered clothing or
at least clean apron or gown. Their
hands should be thoroughly washed before
beginning work.
1.-THE milk passes through too many hands
and is exposed too many times before 1T
with the milk business in the District of
Columbia appears to be that the farmer
sends his milk either directly to the rail-
road station or to neighboring collecting
depot; from this point it passes into the
care of the railroads and is shipped to town
without ice. The milk is received at the
city railroad depot and carted to the city
diaries, where it is sometimes mixed,
aerated. separated, reassembled, cooled and
filtered before it is bottled. 1t would evil
IDENTIFY be much better if the milk could be
cooled and bottled at once on the farm or
at the nearby collecting depots, thereby
avoiding much handling and consequent
chances of contamination.
1.-The milk is kept too long before reach
ing the consumer, the loss of about day
being common a most of the daries."
The members of the board stated that
while the outbreak of typhoid is by no
means wholly attributed to milk they ex-
pressed much wonder that more sickness
and disease Is not spread through this me-
dunn. They found that out of the TAI cases
of typhoid fever considered as having
been contracted in the District, ass of the
patients had used milk beverage each
day for thirty days prior to their illness, 80
in fr11f cereals coffee
and IS in ice cream; only 40 used none, and
IA failed to state. According to the re-
port So of these cases were attributed d.
rectly to the use of infected milk, and of
fected ice cream
Regarding the use of ice the board re-
ported that in 59S cases the patients used
ice in beverages and 125 used no ice at
quent vehicle by which the Infection of ty-
phoid is spread owing to the fact that the
great majority of the bacteria are killed in
the process of freezing.
Small Responsibility of Ice.
The board said:
"Our studies indicate that Ice plays lit
tie If any, part in spreading the infection
of typhoid in the District of Columbia. The
possibility, however, of typhoid infection
being occasionally present in manufactured
ice sold in Washington Is indicated by the
unclean methods used at the factories. Dirt
and filth are carried on the shoes of the
workmen to the tops of the cans or tanks,
from there dripping into the freezing water.
This is confirmed by our meteorological ex-
which discloses a greater num-
Der of organisms In the ice than in the
water from which the ice is made. The con-
trary should be the case.
q" Can Ice in the District Is made mostly
from distilled water and should be safe.
Plate and block ice Is made largely from
tap water, and If not subsequently con-
taminated should also be reasonably free
from injurious pollution.
1T Is recommended that the manufacture
of ice and the traffic in natural ice in the
District of Columbia should be placed I'M
der close sanitary control of the local health
authorities, and that meteorological and
chemical facilities should be supplied for
the frequent examination and control of
this product.
Public Wells Exonerated.
The fact that public weIIs may have been
the cause of the spread is partly contra
dicted by the board. The waters of 81 wells
are used for drinking purposes, "a Of which
are deep wells and 63 shallow" The
deep wells, according to this report, were
found to contain water of an excellent