TYPHOID AND SEWAGE 437 



We ought to have our own drinking cups when we travel, 

 so that we shall not give a disease to any one else, nor run 

 the risk of catching one from others. We ought to have 

 our own cups at school, too, unless the school has a sani : 

 tary fountain (Fig. 308). To put into the mouth objects 

 that have been handled by others is just as bad as to use 

 dirty drinking cups. 



Public towels and soap, as these are found in public washrooms 

 and in many hotels, are full of danger. 



All money, especially paper money, that has been carried about in 

 unclean pockets, and handled with dirty fingers, is "tainted." The 

 examination of paper money by bacteriologists shows that the money 

 has, sticking to it, germs of almost every variety, including those of our 

 worst diseases. Hands should be washed after they have handled 

 money, and before they are used about food or the face. Certainly no 

 cashier ought to be expected to eat his dinner, and to "make change," 

 between bites, for customers. 



427. Typhoid and Sewage. Typhoid fever is one of 

 man's most serious diseases. There are perhaps 250,000 

 cases of it in a year in the United States alone, with up- 

 wards of 25,000 deaths. The bacteria that cause it 

 (cf. 324) are taken into the body through the mouth, in 

 food or water. In the small intestine they multiply 

 rapidly, and produce toxins that pass into other parts of 

 the body. The body waste from the intestines and kid- 

 neys of a typhoid patient contains large amounts of the 

 germs. If the germs are not destroyed, they get into the 

 soil and into sewage. From the soil they may get into 

 garden vegetables, and may be carried, by seepage water, 

 into wells. The germs may get into milk from the water 

 with which milk cans are rinsed, or from some one who 



