IOO PRACTICAL DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY 



1. Direct contact with a patient suffering from this disease. 

 Sometimes patients carry these germs for months and even 

 years after recovery from the disease. Such "chronic bacilli 

 carriers" are a constant menace when employed in the dairy. 1 

 Typhoid fever, as is well known, does not always confine a patient 

 to his bed, and sometimes it is of a mild enough character to 

 allow him to continue for days, or even weeks, about his ordi- 

 nary occupations. Such cases are called "walking typhoid." 

 He frequently may not know that he has typhoid fever; but 

 during all this period he is discharging typhoid germs from his 

 body and is liable to infect anything he touches. If such a per- 

 son is employed in a dairy and touches the milk cans or handles 

 the various utensils, the chance of the germs from his hands 

 or clothing entering the milk is very great. Some of the typhoid 

 fever epidemics have been traced to such causes. 



2. The patients who are sick enough to be confined in bed 

 may, in an indirect way, be the cause of an infection of the 

 milk. Discharges from such a patient always contain typhoid 

 fever bacteria in abundance. These discharges may be care- 

 lessly handled by persons who are employed in the dairy, or 

 such persons may soil their own hands with the soiled clothing 

 or bedding from typhoid patients. Subsequently they may milk 

 the cows or handle milk cans or other utensils. Here is evi- 

 dently an easy source of infection. The only safeguard against 

 this chance of trouble is the absolute prohibition of anyone who 

 has anything to do in the dairy having any connection with 

 the sick room of a person suffering from intestinal fevers. 

 Some health inspectors now forbid the sale of milk from any 

 farm or dairy where there is a case of typhoid or other in- 

 fectious disease. 



3. Infected water is in some cases a source of trouble. The 

 discharges of typhoid fever patients thrown upon the ground, 

 or otherwise improperly disposed of, may percolate through 



iLentz. Hyg. Rund., xvii., p. 377, 1907. 



