82 HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 



That the germ may retain its vitality through all 

 the processes of butter-making is proved by its pres- 

 ence in samples of butter examined. 



It is not always easy nor possible to find the source 

 of single cases of this or any disease, for the infectious 

 germ, carried as dust, may lodge on any article and 

 be thus carried to the mouth by food or by hands, 

 infection Oysters, fattened on sewage-polluted water, have 

 carried the germ to persons eating them. Clams dug 

 out of sewage-saturated flats, when eaten raw, may 

 carry the typhoid germ in a similar manner, 

 sewage In country places where wells are the source of 

 drinking water, or anywhere where surface waters are 

 used directly for this purpose, there is great danger 

 of contamination from drainage, either from the house, 

 its outbuildings, the barn, or manured fields. Con- 

 taminated water supply is the most common source of 

 typhoid infection. 



As the germs causing the disease are thrown out in 

 the discharges from the intestines and the kidneys, 

 these are the sources of infection. If the discharges 

 from the patient and any articles soiled by these are 

 not destroyed by fire or thoroughly disinfected while 

 moist, there can be no surety that they may not, either 

 as dust or through water, carry infection to someone 

 nearby or even far removed. If such care be taken 

 for every case of the disease, it will soon be 'no more 

 prevalent than smallpox. 



Every case of typhoid fever is due to somebody's 



