ICE. 
Ice was not suspected of being a vehicle by wliicli t^'plioid infec- 
tion could be spread until it was shown in bacteriological laborato- 
ries that t^’phoid cultures are not killed by freezing. 
Such diseases as dysenter}^ and other more or less severe intes- 
tinal disorders, as well as typhoid fever, have at times been attrib- 
uted to the use of impure ice. The question was therefore given 
special attention by us. 
All the ice factories in the District of Columbia were inspected and 
samples of natural and manufactured ice examined bacteriologic- 
ally and chemically. Similar analyses were made of all the well 
waters used by the ice factories in the manufacture of ice. 
In the epidemiological part of our investigations the drinking of 
iced water and water obtained from melting ice was made one of 
the special inquiries in each of the 747 cases. 
Five hundred and ninety-eight of the cases used ice in or for 
drinking water, in iced tea, etc.; 125 used no ice in foods or bever- 
ages. For 24 of the cases no definite statements regarding the use 
of ice were obtainable. 
Our studies indicate that ice played little, if any, part in spread- 
ing the infection of typhoid fever in the District of Columbia. How- 
ever, the inspection of the ice factories and the manner in which ice 
is handled disclosed several faults which should be corrected in order 
to insure a cleaner product and safeguard the public against the 
possibility of injurious contamination during the process of manu- 
facture. 
ICE AND TYPHOID FEVER. 
Neufeld ® (1903), in his article on typhoid fever, believes that the 
disease may undoubtedly be spread through the agency of ice, 
because the bacilli are resistant to cold. 
Park ® (1901) described an epidemic which was believed to have 
had its origin in ice obtained from a pond in which it was shown 
that the excrement from a patient sick with typhoid fever had been 
tlu*own while the pond was covered with ice. 
oNeufeld, F.: T^^phiis. IX. Epidemiologie of Kolle & Wassermann’s Handbuch 
der pathogenen Mikroorganismen, Bd. 2, p. 291. 
&Park, W. H.; Virchow-Hirsch’s Jahrsbericht fiir 1901, p. 16. 
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