Typhoid Fever and its Relatives 103 



unfortunately, the bacteria are not generally 

 destroyed, and the house-mates of the patient, 

 or those whose water or milk or food supply 

 become contaminated directly or indirectly 

 from his discharges are liable to succumb to 

 the same malady. 



But there is another significant source of 

 virulent typhoid bacilli which has only re- 

 cently become known. It has been discovered 

 that long after complete recovery from ty- 

 phoid fever the urine and the intestinal 

 waste, the latter even for many years, 

 may contain the bacilli, which apparently 

 get domesticated in the gall bladder or else- 

 where, and while no longer harmful to their 

 host, are yet fully virulent for others should 

 the chances of communal life bring them into 

 contact with food. 



Thus to a single cook has been traced the 

 infection of twenty-six persons in seven 

 different families to whose gastronomic exi- 

 gencies she uncleanlily ministered. A threat- 

 ening epidemic of typhoid has been started 

 by a person concerned with the milk supply 

 of a large city district, though he had not 



