CARRIAGE OF DISEASE 155 



DYSENTERY 



The probability of the carriage of dysentery as an 

 intestinal disease has been suggested by several writers 

 and especially by medical officers of the English army 

 in India, and two of these were referred to by Nuttall 

 and Jepson in 1909, but at that time these authors were 

 obliged to state that there was no direct evidence bear- 

 ing upon flies in relation to dysentery. Since the publi- 

 cation of their abstract of the literature, however, an 

 important paper has been published by Orton and 

 Dodge (1910). We have previously referred to this 

 paper under the heading "Substances in which the early 

 life is passed." 



It seems that during 1910 an epidemic of 136 cases 

 of bacillary dysentery occurred in the Worcester State 

 Hospital and Doctor Orton found that the epidemic 

 had spread gradually. It was not characterized by a 

 sudden general series of cases. This, of course, argued 

 against the theory of a water-supply infection, and it 

 also argued equally well against milk infection and in- 

 fection from raw foodstuffs. It is obvious that with 

 infection from any of these sources a large number of 

 patients would have become ill at the same time. House 

 flies were unusually abundant in the hospital in spite 

 of screening, and these were considered to be the car- 

 riers of the dysentery. We have elsewhere shown that 

 it was finally discovered that the unusual number of the 

 flies was due to certain piles of spent hops and barley 

 malt which had been hauled in as fertilizer on the 

 grounds near the buildings. 



