157 
'Water , — According to the accepted bacteriologic standards, the 
filtered Potomac river water during the typhoid seasons of 1907 and 
1908 was of good sanitary quahty and it does not seem probable that 
such water could have been directly responsible for much, if any, of 
the infection. There is not yet sufficient evidence, however, for a 
positive conclusion to be drawn as to just what part the Potomac 
river water has played in the causation of the disease in previous 
years. 
Washington s excessive” typhoid fever rate . — Considering the cli- 
matic and general sanitaiy conditions of TPasliington, the typhoid 
fever rate is still comparatively high for a city vlth no water-borne 
infection. 
Prophylaxis . — The results of three years of study show that the 
disinfection of excreta of patients is frequently inefficient or neg- 
lected, and that there is a need of legal control of typhoid fever 
patients and typhoid bacillus carriers. 
We are convinced that a vigorous campaign against typhoid fever 
as a ‘‘contagious” disease, and the adoption of measures that would 
prevent the spread of the infection in milk, would eliminate the greater 
part of typhoid fever from the District of Columbia. 
