150 BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



cooked food, particularly milk, or food which has 

 been exposed, may be infected by flies which carry 

 the organisms upon their feet or bodies from sewers, 

 privies, and neglected cholera discharges. Dishes and 

 table linen may also be infected in the same way. 

 The cholera spirilla leave the body only in the feces, 

 and it has been demonstrated that the fecal dis- 

 charges of perfectly healthy persons living in a 

 cholera-infected district may also contain large 

 numbers of spirilla, which is a conclusive argument 

 in the reasons for disinfecting all bowel discharges 

 and linen soiled with fecal matter, and for sterilizing 

 the drinking water. The nursing methods for the 

 prevention of infection in cholera are identical 

 with those in typhoid fever. 



The period of incubation being short, cholera 

 epidemics are explosive in their suddenness. The 

 last epidemic of cholera in Europe occurred in 

 Hamburg in 1892 and was a clinical demonstra- 

 tion of an epidemic caused by infected drinking 

 water. Hamburg and Altona are practically one 

 city, although under two distinct municipal govern- 

 ments. Both cities obtained water from the river 

 Elbe, but in Altona the city water supply was filtered, 

 and in Hamburg it was not at that time, which re- 

 sulted in Hamburg having 16,957 cases of cholera, 



