1890.| RAFTER AND MALLORY—ENDEMIC OF TYPHOID FEVER. 69 
from slop-drains, cess-pools and privies probably presents conditions 
favorable for the multiplication of the typhoid bacillus, provided even 
a single germ gets into such water. 
It is also well understood that cases of typhoid fever sometimes 
occur which are not severe enough to send the patient to bed. These 
are termed walking cases, and the dejections from them contain the 
bacilli capable of producing the disease in others, the same as from 
more severe cases. 
Our view as to the origin of these cases of typhoid fever in the 
village of Springwater is, therefore, as follows : The hotel was certainly 
an original center of infection, as, including Orson Grover, four persons 
living there were taken sick with the disease, and while we are unable 
to establish the fact definitely, we consider it very probable that some 
walking case of typhoid fever stopped at the hotel, and without leaving 
any other tangible evidence inoculated the hotel privy with germs of 
typhoid contained in the dejections. The chemical analyses of the 
water of the hotel well (see table page 70, or table page 71, and the 
bacteriological examinations on page 73) both show the water to be 
exceedingly bad, utterly unfit for domestic use, and the environment 
is such as to lead, with the certainty of a mathematical demonstration, 
to the conclusion that there is gross pollution from the privy and slop 
drain. 
From the hotel privy vault, inoculated in the manner indicated, the 
germs passed, not only to the hotel well, but, possibly, to other wells, 
and, by use of the water for drinking, to Orson Grover. His presence 
at his mother’s house, and the inoculation of the privy there, caused a 
further distribution to the school house and adjacent wells on Centre 
street, whence the germs were quickly distributed to various parts of 
the village, and in a few cases even to the surrounding country. 
Provisions having been made for carrying out the suggestions of 
Drs. Ely and Moore, as well as for thorough disinfection of the infected 
privies, etc., we next turned our attention to the quality of the water 
of the village wells, and as a preliminary step in this direction, the 
amount of chlorine present in a unit volume of the water of a number 
of wells was determined by Mr. Rafter. This was done not only 
because the chlorine determination is easily made, but because the 
chlorine is a fixed element, free from such changes as take place in the 
organic matter ; and provided we know or can ascertain the normal 
chlorine of a region, the determination of the amount actually present 
in any suspected water supply becomes on the whole the most satisfac- 
tory indication of organic contamination that can be made. The 
