MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 209 



not think the small dealer exercises the precautions that he should in the 

 handling of milk. 



Q. What precautions do you refer to ? 



A. Well, I do not think they adequately wash and sterilize their 

 bottles. I have caught small dealers on the street filling bottles out of 

 cans and then taking them into the homes. 



Q. Well, what is your opinion regarding the safety of the raw milk 

 handled by the small .dealer, even if he should properly sterilize the bottles, 

 do you think that milk is safe to use? 



A. I think not. We proved that in one investigation. 



Q. How did you prove it ? 



A. I am sorry I did not bring that with me, notwithstanding, I 

 think I can tell you in part. I was called one time to se,e a man in the 

 northern part of the city; he was taken ill in a strange manner. To make 

 a long story short, .he was taken ill, very acutely ill, with the disease we 

 could not recognize at the time. We made all sorts of examinations of 

 him and many physicians were called into consultation and were not able 

 to recognize the nature of his illness. In about three days another mem- 

 ber of the family was taken ill in the same way. These two patients 

 represented a condition which resembled typhoid fever. That is a dis- 

 ease that never had been discovered in this part of. the country. We 

 thought we were dealing with typhus fever and we sent to Washington 

 with the approval of the Health Officer, arid an expert was sent up here 

 to assist in this investigation, Dr. Joseph Cole Parker, a bacteriologist of 

 international reputation. With his assistance, or in fact, before he ar- 

 rived, we determined the nature of this sickness. In the meantime, two 

 other members of the family were taken sick. We had determined by 

 this time that these were a very peculiar type of typhoid fever. These 

 patients were covered with a rash which closely resembled measles; they 

 were covered from head to foot. While we isolated the organism from 

 their bodies which made them sick, it did not re-act to the usual typhoid 

 tests, nor did it check up with other strains of typhoid organisms after 

 the manner employed in typhoid diseases usually. The husband was 

 sick with this disease for more than six weeks; the wife was sick, acutely 

 ill, for eighty-three days and two other members of the family were 

 sick for a shorter period of time. This man had a little tailor shop; it 

 was necessary for him to employ all this time a physician ; he had several ; 

 some of them he did not have to pay; he had to pay a very considerable 

 physician's bill; but not for these investigations altogether. I estimated 

 that well, after the discovery that these people had typhoid fever, we set 

 out to determine where it came from, and we found this man got his 

 milk from a small milk dealer and the milk came from a farm out in 

 Walworth, so I went out there and took paraphernalia with me and with 



