io6 The Story of the Bacteria 



by the spring floods at the cost of many 

 hundreds of lives. 



Milk supplies should be especially guarded, 

 because milk, when not kept very cold, is a 

 good culture medium for the typhoid bacillus, 

 so that a slight primary contamination may 

 become fairly pestilential before the milk 

 reaches the consumer. 



Oysters, which unscrupulous dealers place 

 in sewage-polluted water to grow plump so 

 that the guise of freshness may impose upon 

 their victims, have many times been the 

 cause of typhoid fever. 



Direct conveyance of the bacilli from the 

 patient to nurses, attendants, or friends should 

 not be possible with reasonable care. 



Typhoid bacilli may remain alive in ice for 

 many weeks though they gradually die out. 

 It is therefore not without risk, as it certainly 

 is without decency, that one permits the use 

 for drinking of ice which has been cut from 

 sewage-polluted waters. 



Flies, which have access to typhoid dis- 

 charges, may carry and deposit upon human 

 food to which they next address their in- 



