TYPHOID FEVER IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
99 
Some difficulties were encountered through discourtesy of employ- 
ees and unwillingness of those in immediate charge to answer ques- 
tions or to allow examinations of the plants, so that this report is not 
as thorough as it would be desirable to make it. However, all the 
factories found were eventually gone through from the boiler and 
engine rooms on the lowest floor to the condensers and reboilers on 
the roof. 
Some of the plants had the can system only, some the plate sys- 
tem only, and others both systems. Two had modifications of 
the plate system, known as the ^ffilock system.’’ The majority of 
them use the city water, a few use deep well water, and one uses 
spring water. In all cases it is claimed the water for the can system 
is obtained by condensation of the exhaust steam from the engines, 
which is first passed through a grease separator. After condensation 
it is reboiled to rid it of air as far as possible, during which process 
it is also automatically skimmed to eliminate any remaining grease. 
It is then carried through cooling pipes to charcoal or other filters 
and deodorized, and finally to the storage tanks, from which it is 
transferred to the cans when needed by means of automatic fillers. 
In most cases the water for the plate system is taken direct from 
the general water supply, but in a few cases it is said to be filtered. 
In no cases were the sanitary conditions as good as could be desired, 
and in some they were positively bad. In one place the can ice room 
had opening into it a window from a very filthy and ill-smelling 
urinal room, which at once attracted attention. On closer exami- 
nation it was found that this small wash and urinal room had opening 
on to it from the four sides (1) the window from the can ice-making 
room, through which the urinal room is usually ventilated, (2) a 
meat and sausage cold-storage room, (3) the men’s dressing room, and 
(4) the meat and sausage sorting and distributing room. The floor 
of this room is made up of concrete graded down to a hole at one side 
of the center. Water trickles down the nearest wall continuously and 
flows through the hole in the floor. The men stand on this urine- 
soaked floor and urinate thereon or against the wall. A wash basin 
in the corner, having running water, was very dirty and looked as 
though it had never been cleaned. The men’s dressing room, which 
communicates with this urinal room by a very large doorway, was 
indescribably filthy. Badly soiled and blood-stained clothes littered 
the floor, while small pieces of meat, blood stains, and expectoration 
attracted large numbers of flies, which were simply swarming. The 
entire place — urinal and dressing room — was very foul smelling. 
While standing there it was noticed that meat and sausages were 
being carried in open boxes on low trucks through the urinal room 
and over the urine-soaked floor from the cold-storage room to the 
sorting and distributing room opposite. As the water falls on the 
