212 BACTERIOLOGY FOR NURSES 



disease typhoid bacilli have been found. They have even been 

 found within the calculi. 



Typhoid Carriers. In the majority of cases of typhoid fever 

 the bacilli disappear from the feces during the first three or four 

 weeks of convalescence, but in a certain number of cases, about 

 1 to 5 per cent, they persist for many months and even years after 

 an attack of the disease. Such carriers have been classified as 

 " temporary " when they cease excreting the bacilli within a year 

 of convalescence and as chronic when this period is exceeded. 

 The distinction is unimportant since both types are a menace to 

 the community in which they reside. A danger lies in the fact 

 that carriers generally appear to be in good health or only suffer 

 occasionally from slight pain in the region of the gall bladder. 

 The majority of traced carriers are women. Since in such cases 

 the chief danger lies in their conveying the bacilli to foodstuffs, 

 a carrier occupied as a cook or waitress or on a dairy farm is a 

 special menace. The following remarkable case of typhoid carrier 

 is cited by Dr. Park of New York : 



" A visitor in the family of which this woman was cook developed 

 typhoid fever some ten days after entering the household. This 

 was in 1901. The cook had been with the family ten years and 

 it is difficult to say which infected the other. The cook went 

 to another family. One month later the laundress in this family 

 was taken ill. 



" In 1902 the cook obtained a new place. Two weeks after her 

 arrival the laundress was taken ill with typhoid fever ; in a week 

 a second case developed, and soon seven members of the household 

 were sick. 



" In 1904 the cook went to a home in Long Island. There were 

 four in the family as well as seven servants; within three weeks 

 after arrival four servants were attacked. 



" In 1906 the cook went to another family. Between August 

 27 and September 3 six of its eleven inmates were attacked with 

 typhoid. At this time the cook was first suspected. She entered 

 another family on September 21st. On October 5th the laundress 

 developed typhoid fever. 



