114 THE MILK QUESTION 



cases of the disease were definitely traced to ice cream. 

 Bruck has shown that typhoid baciUi may Hve as long as 

 twenty-seven days in butter made from milk containing 

 typhoid bacilli. According to Washburn the bacillus lives 

 as long as sixty days or more. Buttermilk, of course, would 

 be fully as dangerous as the milk or cream, from which 

 it was separated. The time required for the ripening of 

 cheese makes the chances of infection from this dairy 

 product very slight. Nevertheless fresh cheese, such as 

 cottage cheese, may contain the infection. 



Milk becomes infected with the typhoid bacillus some- 

 times at the dairy, sometimes at the comer grocery, some- 

 times in the home; occasionally it becomes infected during 

 transportation. 



To show what great chances the milk has of becoming 

 infected at the dairy we may again cite our Washington 

 experience. The city of Washington, for example, obtains 

 its milk supply from about one thousand dairy farms. 

 Estimating the average number of persons living on a dairy 

 farm at about seven, we have some seven thousand persons 

 who have more or less intimate relation with the production 

 of the milk. Now, considering the fact that each year in 

 the United States about one person in every three hundred 

 has typhoid fever, some twenty -five cases per year may be 

 expected on the dairy farms supplying Washington with 

 milk. 



Bolduan estimates that from three hundred to four 

 hundred cases of typhoid fever each year come in con- 

 tact with the milk supplied New York City. He further 

 states that " the startling total of ninety to one hundred 

 and twenty typhoid carriers now probably menace the 

 milk supply of this city." This estimate is based upon 

 the fact that about two hundred thousand persons come 

 into more or less contact with the milk from over forty 

 thousand dairy farms. 



Frequently the cases are mild and not recognized. 



