PLANTS WITHOUT CHLOROPHYLL 



155 



plenty of nourishing food and very little exercise. See also 

 Chapter XXIV. 



Typhoid Fever. — One of the most common germ diseases in 

 this country and Europe is typhoid fever. This is a disease which 

 is conveyed by means of water and food, especially milk, oysters, 

 and uncooked vegetables. Typhoid fever germs live in the intes- 

 tine and from there get into the blood and are carried to all parts 

 of the body. A poison which they give off causes the fever so 

 characteristic of the disease. The germs multiply very rapidly 



This figure shows how sewage from a cesspool (c) might get into the 

 water supply: Im, layer of rock; w, wash water. 



in the intestine and are passed off from the body with the excreta 

 from the food tube. If these germs get into the water supply 

 of a town, an epidemic of typhoid will result. Among the recent 

 epidemics caused by the use of water containing typhoid germs 

 have been those in Butler, Pa., where 1364 persons were made ill ; 

 Ithaca, N. Y., with 1350 cases; and Watertown, N. Y., where 

 over 5000 cases occurred. Another source of infection is milk. 

 Frequently epidemics have occurred which were confined to users 

 of milk from a certain dairy. Upon investigation it was found 

 that a case of typhoid had occurred on the farm where the milk 

 came from, that the germs had washed into the well, and that this 

 water was used to wash the milk cans. Once in the milk, the bac- 

 teria multiplied rapidly, so that the milkman gave out cultures of 



