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POPULAR SCIENCE MOST ELY 



ened and abandons what little coopera- 

 tion in medical and sanitary precau- 

 tions up to this time he has given to 

 the physician. Confusion reigns in the 

 Serpa house, and many friends come 

 from the surrounding ranches to nurse 

 the sick and to sympathize with dis- 

 tressed husband and father. 



The San Francisco cousin, Serpa's 

 wife and the two sick children of 

 Serpa die of typhoid fever. Friends . 

 again come to console and remain to ' 

 be consoled by food and drink. Among 

 the guests are N. and N.'s wife from 

 the N. dairy, P. and the family of P. i 

 from the P. dairy, an aunt and her 

 daughter from San Gregorio (a sea- 

 coast town forty miles away) and a 

 Portuguese family living on Los Tran- 

 cos Creek on the road from the P. 

 dairy to Palo Alto. 



When the aunt, with her daughter, 

 leaves the Serpa house, she takes with ' 

 her two of the Serpa children. The 

 first act ends with the general breaking 

 up and dispersion of these solicitous 

 friends to their respective homes. 



The second act begins January, 1903. 

 N. and the wife of N. lie sick at the 

 N. dairy with typhoid fever. N. dies. 



P. lives on the banks of Los Trancos 

 Creek, a few hundred feet above the 

 intake of the dairy water system; 

 there are no buildings higher tip on 

 the drainage area of the system. Nine- 

 teen Filipino wood choppers and a 

 hundred lumbermen are employed in 

 the hills surrounding the P. dairy; 

 they visit the dairy ranch. On the 

 banks of the creek, near the pig pen 

 and just above the dairy water supply 

 intake, are primitive out-house facili- 

 ties for these laborers. 



P.'s child is sick with fever. P. 

 complains of a general malaise. At 

 the aunt's house in San Gregorio, the 

 aunt and her daughter and the two 



Serpa children are ill with typhoid 

 fever. In the Portuguese houses on 

 Los Trancos Creek, on the road from 

 the P. dairy to Palo Alto, are five cases 

 of typhoid fever. At Stanford Univer- 

 sity and Palo Alto there are two hun- 

 dred and thirty-six cases of typhoid 

 fever. The black pall of death hangs 

 over the university and Palo Alto. 

 Parents all over the country sit in 

 darkened homes with bowed heads and 

 mourn for the dearly beloved son or 

 daughter, while the health officers work 

 with sleepless activity. " By the proc- 

 ess of elimination and by the sequence 

 of events connecting the typhoid fever 

 at the Serpa house with the P. illness, 

 the outhouse on the bank of the P. 

 creek, the rains and the impounded 

 water at the dam, the conclusion is 

 reached that the P. milk was infected 

 through admixture with the creek 

 water used at the milk house of the 

 P. dairy." 



Dr. Clelia D. Mosher's contribution 

 to the ' report ' contains an exhaustive 

 study of the symptoms, relapses and 

 complications of the reported cases. 

 The analysis is based on the detailed 

 reports of the physicians, supplemented 

 by statements from the families and 

 the individuals affected, together with 

 a careful investigation of the death 

 records. The total number of cases 

 reaches 23G; this number includes 24 

 known eases for which no reports were 

 obtained, occurring among students 

 who had left Palo Alto after the out- 

 break of the epidemic. 



The ages of the patients vary from 

 two months to sixty years. Dr. Mosher 

 shows that the most susceptible age, 

 between fifteen and thirty years, is far 

 above the average and explains the 

 number of children infected by the fact 

 that milk was the source of infection. 

 Edith V. Matzke. 



