SANITARY NOTES ON POTABLE WATER. 559 
departing from his intentions, that the poison of enteric fever 
is often generated during some part of the process of 
decomposition of faecal matter. 
Dr. Budd frequently connects in his reports the virulence 
of enteric fever with manure yards, pigsties, and sewers, all 
of which are more or less identical with putrefying matter. 
This is another instance of the conclusions to which exten¬ 
sive practical observation will lead. 
Of peculiar interest, on account of a very large experience, 
extending over more than 1300 cases of enteric fever, are the 
observations of Prof. A. Biermer, of Zurich, on the conditions 
which are most favourable to the propagation of that disease. 
Typhoid, I may remark, is endemic in Zurich. Speaking 
of a certain house called “ Pelikan/* which came under Dr. 
Biermer’s observation at Berne, and upon which he looks as 
a “focus of infection,” he makes the following statements :* 
“This house is situated close to the river Aare, and adjoining 
a large storing reservoir, which received part of the faecal matter 
of the tow r n. Plere the liquid sewage was concentrated. The 
solid parts were allowed to subside, and when the reservoir was 
full the concentrated sewage was scooped out and spread over 
the land in the neighbourhood, to be further concentrated be¬ 
fore being sold and carried away. The subsoil of the Pelikan 
was by this means, as a matter of course, soaked with putre¬ 
scent matter and the air frequently infected. The result was 
that the inhabitants of the Pelikan were from time to time 
visited by typhoid, and indeed between 1858 and 1862 there 
were every year a number of cases, making a total, within 
that time, of twenty-eight, twelve of which ended fatally. 
The proprietor of the Pelikan lost as many as three wives 
through typhoid,” 
In Zurich Dr. Biermer observed in a similar manner that 
the accumulation of human excrements caused a local predis¬ 
position for typhoid and cholera, and that with the exception 
of certain cases, which in all probability had been imported, 
typhoid disappeared as soon as the faecal matter was regularly 
removed. He thus arrives at the conclusion that there is 
strong evidence of the development and reproduction of the 
virus of typhoid outside the human body, mainly within 
decomposing matter in the soil, or in sewers or other localities 
used for the storage of decomposing matter. He believes that 
infection of drinking w r ater with sewage containing the virus of 
typhoid may be instrumental in the spreading of the disease. 
A striking practical corroboration of the preceding obser- 
* ‘ Ueber Entstchung und Verbreitung der Abdominal-Typhus.’ Samm- 
lung, Klinischer Vortrage von A, Yolkmann, No. 53, p, 424. 
