The bee. (Earlington, Ky.) 1889-19??, 1914-03-24

Il hARN+NAhN1N
excepting smallpox. These are no
less than one-half million cases in
this country annually, costing more
than one hundred million dollars.
That means that more than one-halt
million people are eating food and
drinking water that have been CON
taminated with bowel movements
and urine from PERSONS infected with
thp disease.
The specific cause OF typhoid
fever IS the typhoid bacillus, which
was discovered by Eberth, a German
physician IN 1850 They live IN or
binary soil for several months. In
fecal matter they live longer than in
ordinary soil. In soil kept moist by
leaking drain, they win live two
months. They have been found in
garden soil which had been ferti-
li9ed fourteen days previously with
the contents Of five months old
privy vault. They will live four or
five days and travel a distance OF 81
miles in river water. They have
been known TO live for three or four
months in ice, ISL days in butter
and as days in milk.
II is believed that about 40 per
cent OF all typhoid in the United
States is water-borne. From is 10
90 per cent of all epidemics of ty-
phoid fever are due to milk trans
mission. Probably from two to i've
per centum of the total number Of
cases are due to other raw foods, as
oysters, clans, celery, lettuce, onions
end turnips. Ice may serve as a me-
dunn of transmission. About FIVE
per eentum are due to contact infec-
tion. Typhoid germs are of very
minute size, a single germ being only
about I-12,000 of an inch in length
and 1-36,000 OF an inch in thick
ness. Under favorable conditions
they multiply at a very rapid rate,
SO that in a few houses a single
germ may increase to thousands.
Thousands of the germs may be con-
tanned in a particle OF feces no
longer than the head of an ordinary
pin, or in small drop of urine, and
hundreds may be carried on the leg
of a fly. 1t is possible for an indi-
vidual to contract and harbor infec-
tion for a few days Or weeks with
out any symptoms of the disease,
thus becoming temporary typhoid
bacillus carriers" In many In
stances the excreta from such per-
sons are as heavily charged with ty-
phoid germs as those from persons
suffering from the severest attacks
of the disease. Some persons re-
covered from attacks of the disease
continue to discharge typhoid germs
IN their feces, or urine or both. for
weeks. months. or even years, becop,-
ing Chronic typhoid bacillus car
rfers. :" The most noted example oil
tile fact Is Typhoid Mary oil
whom doubtiess some Of YOU nave
heard, a cook in New York City, to
whom twenty-eisht cases of typhoid |
fever hare been traced. The health
department. eIanined her stools aud |
found them sWarmins with typhoid |
bacilli. 1t is estimated that about
three per centum of persons VINO
have the disease become chronic
baciiii carriers,
With this knowledge of the els
ease linked with the fact that we
con now successfully vaccinete
against it. what excuse can we oRer
ior an epidemic of typhoid fever? Al
proper disposal of excreta from all
persons at all times would put an
md to typhoid and this happy end
AN be. attained by the use of the
sanitary privy. which would also
Eradicate diarrhoeal diseases, dys-I
'ntry, hookworm and other intcsti-
lal parasites and to some extent ai6
a the control Of tuberculosis, mas II
auch as many tubercular patients
sputum and the baeiiIil,
'asses out with the feees. Persons |
Walking in soil polluted with such