114 BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



often the source of infection, either from the use 

 of polluted water in cleaning them, or from 

 fertilizers. 



Houseflies are a frequent cause of the contamina- 

 tion of both food and dishes. It has been shown 

 experimentally that living typhoid bacilli may re- 

 main in or upon the bodies of houseflies for two or 

 three weeks. 



Injection from contact does not result from casual 

 contact, but usually occurs in nurses who are caring 

 for typhoid-fever patients, and for this reason the 

 most careful disinfection must be given to the urine, 

 the fecal discharges, and to the bed and body linen of 

 all typhoid patients. The details of the nursing of 

 typhoid patients are almost countless, requiring an 

 extraordinary amount of handling, which renders 

 infection an easy matter unless the patient and his 

 linen are kept immaculately clean and the nurse 

 gives her own hands the most scrupulous care. 



That comparatively few nurses contract typhoid 

 fever from their patients speaks volumes for their 

 observation of cleanliness. 



A recent extraordinary discovery regarding the 

 dissemination of typhoid fever is the fact that ty- 

 phoid bacilli may be found in the excreta of some 

 person for months or years after an attack, which 



