Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-31
FOM|TEs INFECTION THEORY
BELIEF THAT DISEASE IS NOT
TRANSMITTED By GOODS.
Maladies Communicated to Healthy
Beings by Living Creatures.
Mainly Insects.
From the Medical Record.

sally held that the most common mode OF
the spread of yellow fever, at least of its
Importation into a country separated by
water from an infected region. was by
means of fomites-the cargoes of ships
and the baggage of returning travellers.
Many, indeed. were the trunkfuls of
f1nery ruined by disinfection on the ar
rival Of their fair owners at New Orleans
Mexican or Central American or Cuban
port-unnecessarily ruined. as we now
know since the overthrow of this theory
by Mai. Reeds convincing experiment in
the little hut at Marianao. But the
popular and professional belief in the in
fection-carrying power of inanimate OBJ
jects is too firmly rooted to be shaken by
disproof in the case of a single disease,
and the stories of diphthera and scarlet
fever carried half way across the CONT
nent in the fur of woolly lambs and in
other toys are too numerous and appar-
emily too cfrcumstantial to permit of
denial. 1t gives one, therefore, some
thing like a shock to be told by an official
upon whom rests the responsibility OF
safeguarding the city of New York, and
in measure the entire country, from
epidemic disease, that the belief in fom-
ties a carrier of infection is base
less superstition, that there are no infect
ed cargoes. that dirty Egyptian rags may
be handled with impunity, that filthy
lucre is only a figure of speech and the
greasy dollar can bring but contentment
of mind and never disease to the happy
recipient, and that infection is purely
personal matter. unrelated to clothes OF
books or toys or money or any article OF
commerce This is not literally what
DR.. Doty. the health officer of the port OF
New York. says In an article on the
means by which infectious diseases are
transmitted. in the American Journal OF
the Medical Sciences. but it is in sub
veys, and evidently that which he wishes
it to convey.
Mosquitoes to Blame.
While many, if not yet ALL are willing
to concede that the infected mosquito is
the only agent in the transmission OF
yellow fever and of malaria. and that we
can ignore fomites in the case Of these
diseases, it is still claimed, DotY says,
that clothing, rags, etc. constitute ar
active agent in the transmission Of small
pox, typhus fever, measles and scarlet
fever. although there is an abundance OF
reliable evidence to show that this is not
true In support of his contention he
recalls an experience in the autumn OF
1892 when there were simultaneous out.
breaks Of smallpox and typhus fever in
this city. At this time there were about
eighty persons connected with the bureau
of infectious disease of the health de-
partme1t, all of whom were brought into
intimate relation with the subjects OF
Although these officials went freely to
and from their homes, taking no precau-
tons in the way of wearing gowns or
changing their clothing, not one of their
friends or members of their families
suffered from either disease. In the case
har ri
as convincing experiment. since it may
be assumed that the families of health
officials would be protected by vaccina-
ton; typhus fever also is a crowd disease
badly ventilated apartments being an
essential to It's spread, and open air be-
ing inimical to it, as was demonstrated
sixty years ago by Alonzo Clark in his
shacks in the Bellevue Hospital grounds
The Dirty Rag Theory
Doty's testimony in the case of rags
is. however, more striking. His re-
searches have failed to bring to light any
cases of infectious disease in paper ware
houses among the sorters of domestic
or foreign rags, occurring as result OF
their occupation. He also personally in
vestigated the subject in Egypt in the
rag depots at Alexandria. and says that
the carefully prepared statistics OF the
English sanitary authorities there afforded
not the shadow of evidence that the per-
sons in contact with these rags in the
sorting rooms were more prOne to in
fectious disease than those in other pur-
suits. The handlers of our nasty paper
money in banks and at the Treasury De-
partment in Washington are also, he
claims, no more subject to infectious
disease than others who come in daily
contact with much less of this stuff. In
connection with this, he quotes the state
ment of Hildith of the Sheffield bac-
THEOLOGICAL laboratory at Yale, who says
that 1.-The bacteria present in paper money
are non-virulent. and that the forms most
present are the air FORMS and reaches
the reassuring conclusion that money
constitutes an unimportant factor in the
of disease
The practical conclusion which Doty
formulates as a result of his researches
and observations is that infectious
diseases are usually transmitted directly
from the sick to the well or by appar-
emily healthy bacilli carriers, or by in
sects. He admits. of course, the trans
mission of infection by the discharges
from the sick. as in the case of typhoid
fever and cholera, and he does not deny
the possibility of infection by clothing
and bedding recently in contact with the
sick. But he contends that the fomites
theory of the epidemic spread of disease
is inconsistent with the modern theories
of disease transmission. and that the
control of epidemics of infectious disease
consists in the detection of the sick and
their prompt and thorough isolation AID
plying this principle to quarantine, he
would not, as a rule. submit the cargo
of vessels or the clothing of we'll per-
sons who have been exposed to the sick.
or who have come from infected regions
TO the expensive and annoying process OF