The sun., 1909-06-30
"TYpH0ID MARY" IN COURT
APPEALS FROM CONFINEMENT
AS A CHRONIC CASE.
The Health Board Has Had Her Under
Observation for Two Years, she Says,
and Now She wants TO Get Out-Once
Fought on Sanitary Policeman.

ODoefvattOn Tor Two ears, Sno Sey6,
and Now She Wants to Get Out-Once
Fought on Sanitary Policeman.
A cook who according to the records
Of the Board Of Health is living culture
Of typhoid fever baoilli and who has been
for the last two years in close confinement
on North Brother Island tried yesterday
to obtain release from Justice Giegerioh
in the Supreme Court.
She is Mary Mallon and in her day
cooked in the homes of j. Coleman Dray-
ton, Henry Gilsey> and others in New
York, to say nothing Of Healy's restaurant
on upper Broadway. The records OF the
Health Department show something like
twenty eight cases of typhoid that fol-
lowed in the wake Of Mary Mallon. The
doctors call 1t one Of the most interesting
cases of chronic typhoid on record.
The writ OF habeas corpus which
brought Mary into court yesterday was
sued out by Lawyer George Francis
O'Neill. O'Neill says that she Is illegally
deprived of her liberty. The Health
Department. represented by George Paul
Nicholson. asked for an adjournment
of the case until to-day. Mary was taken
back to the island, where she says she
has been kept like leper for the Inst two
years, with only a dog for company
She says that her food has been showed
through the door three times day by a
nurse. who Immediately ran away.
The Health Department took her to
North Brother Island on March 20 1907.
under the provision in the city Charter
which gives it the power TO isolate all
persons sick with a contagious disease.
That acti on was in consequence OF an in
vestigation by DR.. George A. Soper
He laid the result OF his search before the
Department OF Health with the suggestion
that the woman be taken into custody
for examination by the bacteriologists
OF the department
Miss Walton refused to Submit herself
to examination and the department sent
five policemen to take her to the Deten-
ton Hospital In the words OF the re-
port which DR.. Soper subsequently, made
on the subject there was a Severe strug-
gle in which she showed remarkable
bodily strength and agility when the
policemen undertook to arrest her. The
police said that she jumped the back
fence from the house in which she was
working at the time. hid behing an ash
can on the piazza Of the house or the next
street and when they found her put up
a stiff fight.
In court yesterday morning she looked
as rosy as you please and as though she
could make as valid resistance as she
did then. She had in her pocket a page
from Sunday newspaper which she
showed to those who would look at It.
1t gave a picture OF Typhoid Mary
dropping skulls into skillet. Mary seemed
to think that was a good picture OF herself
Notwithstanding the sentiment. A ply
sician OF the Health Department said
vest erday that IL she should be set to
work in a milk store tomorrow in three
months she could accomplish as much
as hostile army.
The string Of epidemics which brought
her to North Brother Island Is given in
pamphlet written by DR.. Soper. He
does not use Mary Mallons name. but it
was said yesterday at the Office OF the
Corporation Counsel that II was her case
which the bactsriologist descfibed DR..
Soper calls it -The Work Of Chronic
Germ Distributor -.
In the winter Of 1909 DIR; scpsr ~es
C4ll6O 10 look lupO I'll 0Rt&lSulLE Oi pQOlu
fever at Oyster Bay which had had ite run
the previous August. Six persons out Of a
family OF eleven had been taken i'll. DR..
Soper secured samples of the water from
the we'll which the family had used
and had them subjected to chemical
and bacteriologic analysis. The analyses
showed nothing. The theory that the water
was at fault did not seem to him to be-
tenable.
He examined the food supply, especially
the source from which the family secured
its CLAIMS, but nothing which he found
seemed to account for the epidemic.
He he'd to. turn, ms he says. to some Pc
culiar event in the recent history OF the
family which might supply the missing
data.
The key OF the situation was found in
the fact that the family had changed cooks
some three weeks before the typhoid
made its appearance.
Little he says was known about
the new cooks history. She had been
gave her an excellent recommendation
She remained in the family but a short
time, leaving about three weeks after
the outbreak Of the typhoid occurred
She was described as an Irish woman
about 40 years OF age. tai. heavy. single
She appeared to be in perfect health, !
DR.. Soper found her with good deal Of
questioning or examination. He there
fore setNo looking up her previous record
He found that she had been employed
in the summer OF 1904 in the household Of
Henry Gilsey at Sands Point. l.. l. The
family had eleven persons in il, seven OF
whom we're servants. Within four weeks
and half of the time that Mary entered
the employ Of MIR. Gilsey four OF the ser
wants were taken sick with typhoid fever
and the epidemic was confined to a
single house in which they lived.
DR.. Soper, following the trail back two
wears more, discovered that in the family
Of j. Coleman Drayton of New York,
spending the summer at Dark Harbor.
Me-, a severe epidemic Of typhoid had
occurred in June. 1902. Seven persons
out of nine in the household were taken
sick, and besides them two more. one
trained nurse and the other a woman who
came in to work by the day, were attacked.
The cook had been employed five weeks
before the first case appeared. At the
time the water supply was suspected TO
be the medium for the spreading Of the
infection, but it was never believed TO
have been the original cause OF the out
the first to fall sick. had been infected
before his arrival at Dark Harbor and
had passed it on to the other members
of the household. DIR. Soper did not
place much faith in either theory.
He traced Mary Mallon further back
still and found that in three other in
stances typhoid fever had followed her.
Indeed. when Dr. Soper finally found her
in 1907, while he was investigating the
cause OF the outbreak at Oyster Bay,
he discovered that two cases Of typhoid
already had developed. one OF which
proved fatal.
sThe foregoing he says. records by