TYPHOID FEVER 133 



typhoid excreta. A good example of a severe epi- 

 demic directly traceable to such contamination is af- 

 forded by the recent epidemic at Ithaca, N. Y., during 

 which 912 cases with 58 deaths occurred during the 

 months of January, February, and March, 1903 ; 128 

 cases and 26 deaths occurred among the students at- 

 tending Cornell University. 



The fatal epidemic which occurred at Plymouth, 

 Pa., some years ago, has been traced to the pollution 

 of the water supply by the excreta of a single case of 

 typhoid fever, and this notwithstanding the fact that 

 the water passed through three storage reservoirs, 

 having altogether a capacity of 5,000,000 gallons. 

 During this epidemic 1 104 cases were recorded with 

 a mortality of 114. 



Without doubt typhoid fever is sometimes spread 

 by means of infected dust containing living typhoid 

 bacilli in desiccated excreta of typhoid patients. This 

 is one of the ways in which the disease is spread 

 among new levies of troops. It has been shown by 

 experiment that the typhoid bacillus may retain its 

 vitality when mixed with dry earth for a period of at 

 least twenty-five days. 



There is a good reason to believe that in several of 

 our camps, during the Spanish-American War, this 

 was an important factor in the etiology of typhoid- 

 fever epidemics. The average mortality from typhoid 



