72 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



of a daughter about twenty years of age, who was away 

 from home at the time when the others were taken ill, 

 and for some months before that time, was evidently a 

 tidy one. This was shown by their personal appear- 

 ance, and by the clothing and bedding. But the house 

 in which they lived was very old, and very much 

 decayed. Mr. Evans had purchased the farm six years 

 ago ; and for some three years past, at least, they had been 

 troubled every now and then, one or more of the family, 

 with nausea and vomiting, followed by more or less prostra- 

 tion. But in no instance, up to the present illness, had the 

 symptoms been sufficient to cause them to summon a physi- 

 cian. The family had worked hard in order to pay for the 

 farm, and had determined to make the old house do until 

 they were out of debt. Even before this family had moved 

 to the farm, the house had been known among the neigh- 

 bors as an unhealthy one, and there had been much sick- 

 ness and a number of deaths among its former tenants. 



" The house is a frame one, and one of the neighbors said 

 to me that it was an old house when he came to the neigh- 

 borhood thirty-seven years ago. It consists of two rooms 

 on the ground-floor, with attic rooms above. The frame 

 rests upon four large logs or sills, which lie directly upon 

 the ground, and are thoroughly rotten. There is no cellar 

 under any part of the house. From the front, at least, the 

 surface slopes toward the house, and the rain-water runs 

 under it. In the floor of one room a trap-door had been 

 placed, and directly under this a small excavation had been 

 made for the purpose of collecting the rain-water when it 

 accumulated under the house. Although this pit was dry 

 at the time of our examination, its sides and bottom were 

 marked with cray-fish holes, showing that water had stood 

 in it. The floor was laid of unjointed boards, and every 

 time that it was swept much of the filth fell through the 

 cracks, and every time that the tidy housewife scoured and 

 mopped the floor, the water, carrying with it the filth, ran 

 through the crevices, and thus the conditions most favorable 

 for putrefactive changes were brought into existence and 

 maintained. 



