184 
TYPHOID FEVER IH DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
found it at that time in one buried in ordinary earth. He could not 
find it at all after twenty days. 
Loesner (1896), however, working with the bodies of swine, found 
the bacillus after ninety-six days in one case. In this instance the 
spleen of a t 5 rphoid patient was placed in the cadaver, and this 
wrapped in cloth and inclosed in a wooden box was buried 1.5 
meters deep in sandy loam. Winter conditions prevailed during the 
experiment. Loesner noted no tendency to infect the surrounding 
soil. 
Gartner (1898) found that B. t}^hosus could live in loosely packed 
manure for ten days at a low temperature, 3-5° C., but disappeared 
more quickly at higher temperatures and in closely packed manure. 
Concerning the possibility of B. typhosus living in dried earth 
capable of being blovm about as dust much has been vTitten, Ger- 
mane (1897) deducing from his experiments that conve 3 ^ance by 
these means is unlikety. His methods, however, do not bear strict 
scrutiny, and the work of Firth and Horrocks above referred to 
shows the possibility of such a means of transmission. 
Harrison and Harrison (1904), in India, under conditions which 
would seem especially inimical to B. typhosus and using, as they 
observe, rather inadequate methods of isolation, showed that in 
absolutely dry dust exposed to diffuse light the bacillus lived one 
hundred and eighteen hours. Exposed to sunlight it lived seventy- 
seven hours, during which time it was exposed to direct sunlight 
for twenty-three hours. The dust was sterilized to avoid difficulty 
in isolating the organism, but, as the authors state, in an absolutely 
dr}^ condition competitive organisms could have but little influence. 
The};" conclude that in India, at least, the dust is a possible and 
likely medium of transfer of t}q)hoid fever. 
Concerning the infection of growing vegetables by polluted soil, 
Wurtz and Bourges (1901) have demonstrated by the following 
methods that it may occur. Pots of earth were planted with the 
seeds of cress, lettuce, and radishes, and the earth sprinkled with 
water containing B. typhosus. The tips of the resulting plants' 
leaves were then examined from time to time and the bacillus con- 
stantly found up to three weeks after inoculation of the soil. 
Some of the results with sterilized media are appended, with the 
observation that they do not pretend to reflect natural conditions. 
