INTRODUCTION 25 



the promiscuous manipulation begins and is continued until the 

 bread enters the digestive tract of the consumers. The loaves 

 are handled by the dirty, sweaty and oftentimes diseased hands 

 of the baker or his helper. Basketfuls of uncovered bread are 

 dragged over the dirty floors, over sidewalks, and through the 

 filthy alleys. The uncovered loaves are repeatedly handled by 

 the bakery drivers whose hands and clothing are generally very 

 filthy. The uncovered loaves are left on doorsteps and other 

 exposed places on the premises of the consumer. This much- 

 handled bread is finally eaten, crust and all, without any attemp t 

 at sterilization. Such bread may be contaminated with a great 

 variety of disease germs. Infections from hands, disease-bearing 

 dust from the streets and alleys, excreta from disease-carrying 

 flies, excreta from the intestinal tract of man and of animals 

 are among the deposits which have been found on the exterior of 

 bread. Miss Katherine Howell has traced an epidemic of typhoid 

 fever to the consumption of contaminated bread and she has 

 demonstrated the presence of typhoid fever germs and of in- 

 testinal bacteria on numerous loaves of bread. Edward Bartow, 

 director of the Illinois State Water Survey, has also demonstrated 

 a bread-borne typhoid epidemic in Rockford, Illinois. Colon 

 bacilli are usually found in considerable numbers on every loaf 

 of unwrapped bread. Every loaf of bread from the public bakeries 

 should be wrapped in sterilized paper bags just as soon as it leaves 

 the oven and it should remain in these bags until ready to be 

 placed before the consumer. 



Polluted water may carry the germs of dysentery, of cholera, 

 of typhoid fever and the larvae of intestinal and other parasites. 

 Clams and oysters have caused typhoid epidemics. Fruits and 

 vegetables are frequently polluted with fertilizer, especially where 

 human fertilizer is used, as is the custom with the Chinese truck 

 gardeners not only in China but also in other lands where the 

 Chinese are found. Using human excrement as a fertilizer of 

 soil should be prohibited by law. American army surgeons at 



