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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Austrian Bedroom. 



at the dairyman's wife, who was " ailing." He diagnosed the case 

 immediately as incipient typhoid, and the milk man, whose milk house, 

 by the way, was quite a fly trap, was told that he must take his wife 

 immediately to a hospital at Hibbing or elsewhere, or stop doing busi- 

 ness. He chose the former alternative. This case is mentioned as 

 showing the need of constant, intelligent supervision of these people 

 on the part of conscientous experts. Why more of them do not die of 

 typhoid, under existing conditions, is a wonder ! The same kindly 

 providence which keeps an intoxicated man from harm must be caring 

 for them in their blind ignorance ! 



The epidemic of typhoid last summer, at Hibbing, at least, did not 

 originate in the water. Nor could we trace the disease along any milk 

 route, in spite of the filthy conditions in connection with dairies. It 

 is interesting to conjecture at this point just how dangerous it is to eat 

 dry food contaminated with typhoid germs from a fly's body. Moist 

 food, of course, so impregnated, would, in the majority of cases, be far 

 more dangerous, and of all the moist foods, milk is perhaps one of the 

 best culture fluids for these germs. It is not improbable, then, that 

 although, by some lucky accident, typhoid did not originate in the 

 dairies themselves, and the milk was brought to the consumer in a 

 fairly good condition, it was there, in the house, in many cases, inocu- 

 lated by filthy flies, and the numbers of the deadly bacilli tremendously 

 increased. 



