Mat 31, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



863 



serve as most reliable guides to the solving of 

 certain economic problems, as, for instance, 

 the control of certain insect enemies of forests 

 which require remedial action veithin a short 

 period in their seasonal history. 



The practical application of the principle 

 outlined in these remarks has been referred 

 to by Dr. Hopkins in Bulletin 50, West 

 Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 1898, pp. 17-18, Bulletin 67; ibid., 1900, pp. 

 241-248; and Bulletin No. 58, Part III., Bu- 

 reau of Entomology, TJ. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, 1907, p. 32. 



Dr. Gill, apropos of his recent Smithsonian 

 article on ' Parental Care among Fresh- 

 water Pishes' and the numerous cases of 

 oral gestation and harboring the young in the 

 mouth, called attention to an article in a 

 Swiss journal (Bihliotheque universelle, Ge- 

 neva, 1905) by Dr. Fuhrmann, announcing 

 that an osteoglossoid fish of Borneo (Sclerop- 

 ages formosus) also took the young into the 

 mouth after hatching; the data given, how- 

 ever, were scanty and it was not stated whether 

 the egg-carrier was the female or male. 



The regular program consisted of an ad- 

 dress by Dr. George A. Soper, of New York, 

 on ' A Chronic Typhoid Fever Producer,' and 

 discussion following. 



The speaker, after introduction by Dr. L. O. 

 Howard, gave a detailed account of his in- 

 vestigation covering several months into the 

 source of a household epidemic of typhoid 

 fever occurring in Oyster Bay, N. T., during 

 the summer of 1906. Of eleven persons six 

 developed positive cases of typhoid between 

 August 27 and September 3. Several 

 suspected sources — water, milk, vegetables, 

 fruit and soft clams — were excluded by careful 

 study and examination. Eejieated sanitary 

 analysis of the water supply and failure to 

 ■detect subsoil pollution by fluorescein tests of 

 the drainage showed the infection was not 

 water borne. Typhoid was unusual in Oyster 

 Bay and there were no cases immediately pre- 

 ceding or following those under consideration. 

 The milk and food supply of the infected 

 household was common to others of the village 

 without the occurrence of other cases. None 

 of the patients had been absent for several 



weeks prior to the outbreak and they there- 

 fore had acquired it on the premises. The 

 house and surroundings were in an entirely 

 hygienic condition. The investigator inferred 

 the occurrence of some unusual event prior to 

 August 20, and found it in a change of cooks 

 August 4. The new cook's term of service 

 with this family covered a period three 

 weeks prior to and three weeks subsequent to 

 the outbreak. She refused to give any infor- 

 mation tending to connect her with the cases, 

 but an independent investigation of her previ- 

 ous service disclosed a startling and significant 

 history of typhoid. Despite the fact that her 

 record for nearly two of the past five years is 

 yet unknown, twenty-six cases of typhoid 

 fever, including one death, were associated 

 with her service in seven families during this 

 time. The cases were almost entirely among 

 the servants and the initial case frequently 

 occurred soon after the arrival of the cook. 

 She did not directly admit having herself suf- 

 fered from typhoid, but to three persons she 

 is said to have previously testified to a mild 

 attack. 



The evidence indicating the cook to be a 

 competent cause of typhoid, she was taken into 

 custody by the New York City Department of 

 Health, March 11, 1907, and at the detention 

 hospital a bacteriological examination was 

 made. She was a large healthy Irishwoman, 

 single, forty years of age. The urine was 

 free of typhoid bacilli, but the stools showed 

 great numbers nearly every day for the several 

 weeks of observation. The blood gave a posi- 

 tive Widal reaction. Thus a healthy and 

 .vigorous subject was shown to be a chronic 

 typhoid-fever producer. As the typhoid 

 organism is known to persist for years in the 

 gall bladder, this is the presumed source of 

 the infection, removal of which requires the 

 consent of the subject. 



The speaker called attention to recent 

 papers by Dr. Eobert Koch and others on the 

 important investigations in western Germany 

 of typhoid outbreaks by the aid of portable or 

 'flying' laboratories. To the Germans the 

 dangers of bacillus-carriers were well known. 

 Stress was laid on the importance of contact 

 in transmission and on the analogy in this 



