INFECTION CARRIERS. 39 



possible, or increasing, the discharge of the organ- 

 isms. In a large percentage of the cases of typhoid 

 fever the kidneys become the seat of numerous 

 foci of metastatic infection, resulting in the elim- 

 ination of large quantities of living, virulent ty- 

 phoid bacilli in the urine. A similar event happens 

 in paratyphoid fever, and in systemic tuberculosis, 

 and Koch has even suggested that sleeping sickness 

 may be acquired by coitus. "Milk sickness," which 

 apparently is acquired through the gastro-intes- 

 tinal tract, is transmitted through the milk (Jor- 

 dan and Harris), and the same is true of Malta 

 fever. The virus of hydrophobia is excreted 

 through the salivary glands. Experimentally, 

 pneumococci and anthrax bacilli, when injected 

 into the circulation, have been recovered from the 

 intestinal tract. This was also done with the 

 vibrio of cholera in guinea-pigs (Kolle and 

 Issaeff) . 



These statements are made with reference to "Carriers. 

 the discharge of micro-organisms during actual 

 disease. Investigations have shown, however, that 

 infections on a large scale, reaching even epidemic 

 proportions, are frequently derived from those who 

 apparently are in a state of good health. Usually, 

 but not always, this concerns individuals who have 

 suffered from the infection at some previous time, 

 and they are known as "bacillus carriers," or sim- 

 ply "carriers." 



The vibrio of cholera may be excreted in the 

 stools for forty-eight days after the recovery of 

 the patient (Kolle). Virulent diphtheria bacilli 

 may be discharged from the mouth and nose for 

 months after recovery from the disease, and in the 

 case of rhinitis fibrinosa chronica this may persist 



