132 THE HOUSE FLY— DISEASE CARRIER 



that typhoid patients should be considered the chief 

 source and that this was due to their being not only 

 more numerous than the carriers, but also to the fact 

 that the germs passed by them are usually more dan- 

 gerous. On the other hand, every infection by a ty- 

 phoid carrier may be the first in a long series of cases ; 

 in fact, he may be responsible for a whole epidemic. 

 His importance cannot be over-estimated. As Klinger 

 says, *'He is an important factor, and typhoid houses 

 and typhoid areas seem to be his work." 



In an article in the Boston Medical and Surgical 

 Journal* we find the following very interesting state- 

 ments and reports of cases of this sort, that mentioned 

 in the final paragraph evidently being Typhoid Mary : 



''It is asserted by Kutscher that, in Southwestern 

 Germany, direct contact is a more important factor in 

 the spread of typhoid fever than polluted water, and 

 that about four per cent, of typhoid patients become 

 chronic carriers of the specific bacilli, which they ex- 

 crete in both urine and feces, sometimes for long peri- 

 ods. Doerr. for example, cites cases reported by 

 Drober and Runner, in which the bacilli were isolated 

 from the gall bladder seventeen and twenty years after 

 recovery, and Lentz asserts that if after ten weeks from 

 convalescence the excretion of the bacilli has not ceased, 

 it will most likely continue permanently and uninter- 

 ruptedly, in spite of medication. He cites a number of 

 cases in which, after ten, thirty, and even forty-two 



♦The exact reference- to this important article has been lost and 

 cannot be found. 



