PROCEEDIXGS OF SECTION I.. 581 



When such a system is in smooth working, and when case returns 

 are quickly available and capable of ready tabulation in relation 

 to various circumstances — time of year — district-relation to pre- 

 vious cases, or to water or milk supply, the public health authority 

 should often be able to note the beginning of an epidemic very 

 early in the day owing to its atypical relationships to certain cir- 

 cumstances. The work of the bacteriologist, who would work in 

 conjunction with the public health official, should not be merely 

 the examination of specimens, but should be the complete bacterio- 

 logical investigation of each and every epidemic or case that the 

 public health doctor considers merits special attention. The 

 bacteriological examination of any outbreak or case should, when- 

 ever possible, be conducted by the bacteriologist on the spot. He 

 should visit the district wjth the health authority, see the cases, 

 and take what notes he may require, and make such examinations 

 or tests as he may think requfeite. The keynote of the work, if 

 I make myself clear, is to have the co-operation of the adminis- 

 trator and epidemiologist, and the bacteriologist on the spot. One 

 point will attract the notice of one specialist and another of 

 another, and the stereoscopic effect of the several points of view 

 will be the means of the unravelling of many problems. Common 

 sense, though so often decried, will be found a very valuable assist- 

 ance to both. There are some people who seem capable of absorb- 

 ing any amount of scientific data, but have no scientific method, 

 who, filled with volumes of facts fi'om text-book and periodical, 

 seem to become fettered by them. Their minds become too full for a 

 clear arrangement of the facts, and failing to sort the crowded 

 furniture of their mind they take hold of one particular idea, 

 genei'ally the last stored away in the mental bookcase, and run 

 amok. Result, instead of getting a clear understanding of the 

 facts of the case many of the facts never emerge, or, if they do 

 at all, never in their relative importance. 



Before now a dwelling has been carefully disinfected by such 

 a person where subsequent investigations have shown the cause 

 of the trouble to be carried by food from a carrier who may be 

 sitting watching the edifying but virtually useless and unnecessary 

 process with the formalin spray and paint brush. Two epidemics 

 which came under my observation at one time had been similarly 

 treated with fumigation, &c., and although the bacteriological 

 proof was for certain reasons impossible to make, one on inquiry 

 proved epidemiologically to be almost certainly a fly-spread infec- 

 tion originally introduced into a country district by a convalescent 

 case; the other was a very obvious carrier-food epidemic brought 

 about by contamination of food by a casual hand employed in a 

 kitchen. 



