IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
113 
not only been the driver of the wagon, but had also worked over the milk, 
transferring it, filling cans, and otherwise making himself useful about the 
creamery. ’ ’ 
The Springfield epidemic of August, 1892, was likewise 
attributed to the milk as a source of infection. Other 
cases are also here recorded. 
A severe epidemic of typhoid fever occurred among the 
college students at Ames in the fall of 1900. A careful 
investigation of the well water, spring and deep well 
water supplying the college was made by Dr. Harriman, 
who had charge of the college hospital, and therefore had 
a good opportunity for studying all the conditions. He 
concluded that the milk supplying the college diningroom 
was the source of infection.* 
The general conclusions reached by the writer in a 
paper f w 7 ere as follows: It may be stated that so far as 
the analyses show the college water supply may be consid- 
ered excellent. It is true that in a number of instances 
more organisms were found than at other times, but an 
examination made from time to time shows that the num- 
ber is not unusually large, and on the whole that we may 
consider our water supply piactically pure, and I should 
also state that the water from the spring supply is unu- 
sually good. We should bear in mind that the failure to 
find the typhoid fever bacillus in the water supply 
of the Briley well is not at all surprising. It is a well 
known fact that the saprophytic species grow so readily in 
the nutrient media that the typhoid fever bacillus has not 
the same chance to grow. The same may also be said 
with reference to milk, only here we are dealing with such 
a large number of species that it would be a mere accident 
to discover the organism. As stated before, it seems to me 
to be reasonable that the milk formed a favorable medium 
for the growth of the typhoid organism, and be it espe- 
cially remembered that Mr. Briley, from his own testi- 
mony, failed to w T ash the cans with boiling water as should 
have been done. The milk cans could easily have been 
* The Jr. of the Am. Med. Assoc. 38 : 511. 1902. 
fProc. Ia. Acad. Sci. Vol. 8. 274. 
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