The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-10-14
Or, OWENS SCORES
HARTMAN METHODS
State Official Criticises Bot
tie Washing Apparatus
At Dairy.
TRACE TYPHOID ROUTE
Sanitary Conditions At Dairy
Not Good, Says Official
Report.
TRACE TYPHOID ROUTE

That Richmond's typhoid epidemic
was caused by dairyman Hartman's
failure to sterilize bottles is the gist
Of an exhaustive report made by State
Inspector DR.. John Owens to the state
board of health, and forwarded today
to the Palladium.
The text of the report follows:
AS will be observed the first case
except that accounted for by local
conditions developed on September
LIST The patient here was a little
girl, four years of age who had been
visiting with her parents in st. Louis,
Mo- She returned with the family OIL
the above date, was feeling badly, and
a few days later her case was dag
nosed as typhoid fever. During the
time of her illness, before a definite
diagnosis was made, the family re-
ceived daily bottle of milk from the
Hartman dairy. After using the milk
the empty bottle was washed in with
the family dishes including the dishes
used by the little girl, the same dish
pan and dish cloths being used.
1t is we'll known fact that ordinary
DISTINGUISHING is not process of steri-
iization. After the bottle was washed
it was sent back to the dairy, and ait
er being refilled with milk was sent
out to somebody else along the dairy
mans route. Within very short
time after the beginning of this case
twenty-One cases of typhoid developed
among this dairyman's patrons. AT
the time of the investigation there
were thirty-one cases of typhoid fever
within or near the City of Richmond
Eight of these cases could be account
ed for by purely local conditions. Six
of them occurred in two families and
two other cases within a radius of a
half block of these two. All were To-
Gated within a part of the town that
had had a great deal of typhoid in the
is infected.
Attacks Milk Supply.
The fact that twenty-one out of
twentythree of the remaining cases
occurred along the Hartman milk
route suggested a very strong proba-
bility of an infected milk supply.
Investigation was made at the dairy,
and also all premises within the neigh
borhood from which the dairyman was
receiving milk supply, and no ap-
parent cause of the epidemic existed
at any of these places. There had
been no typhoid in the dairyman S
family nor in the family of the farm
er supplying the dairyman with milk
Sanitary conditions at the dairy
were not good, but were very much
above the average at the tributary
dairy. There had been no visits OF
persons from the outside of either OF
these homes, and no one from either
family had been visiting within two
weeks prior to the start of the cpl
demic.
The water supply for the dairy was
a spring at the base of the hill, and
surface contamination was possible
there. since the drainage from part OF
the barnyard, the backyard and the
house was in that direction. There
was a possibility of contaminated
premises through some typhoid car
rier, from the fact that there had beer
parties of threshers and corn-shred
ders there during the summer. The
most significant fact, however, re
vealed by the investigation at the
dairy was that no adequate method o.
sterilizing bottles or other milk con
tainers was provided.
An old wash boiler was used as 6
receptacle in which this washing was
done. This boiler was regularly filled
with water from spring, heated upor
a stove, carried to an adjoining room
and there used as receptacle il
which the bottles were washed b.
hand. Taking it all in all, however
it seems quite likely that the contain
ination did not exist primarily at the
dairy farm.
Criticises Method.
The most probable way of account
ing for the epidemic lies in the fac
that the dairyman regularly received
bottles from the home of the first case
and later on from homes in which sub
sequent cases developed after sucl
bottles had been washed in the home:
with the family dishes: including il
almost every case the dishes from
sick room. 1t seems quite probabl,
that had the law been obeyed will
reference to the sale of milk within
home where Infectious disease sxists
that this epidemic would have beer
prevented.
The proper method of supplyin,
such families with milk is to requir,
the family to furnish its own recep
tacle. The dairyman should not al
low any container of his own to b,
taken into a home of this kind. blu
should fill receptacle provided b,
the family with milk and take his cor
tainer away.
Since there is always a possibilit,
that he may know in every instanc
of the presence of any disease anon;
his customers it would seem only
very wise safeguard to require tina
dairymen sterilize all containers from
whatever source they might come
Defends Position.
The suggestion was made that i
this dairyman's milk was infected witt
typhoid germs, it was strange tina
none of his own family had bee
stricken with the disease, and thi
argument was used by some to dis
credit the results of the Investigation
It was developed. however that onl
about per cent of the people actua
~ using his milk had been made sicl
and upon this ratio it was not strang
that among the population of eleven a
the dairy no one became infected.
Another significant thing reveale
by the investigation was that in
large number of the homes where tn
disease existed. no proper method wa
used for sterilizing the Stops from tn
sick room. In many instances this m;
terial was thrown into the privy vau
or buried in the back yard, and in on
instance ordinary lime was being use
to sterilize the sick room excreta.
Keeping all of these facts in mine
the wonder is not that Richmond wa
visited by serious epidemics of t,
-A~ll h,$ raShar Gu fau naomi