Infection 
by Oysters 
Sewage 
82 HOUSEHOLD BACTERIOLOGY 
That the germ may retain its vitality through all 
the processes of butter-making is proved by its pres¬ 
ence in samples of butter examined. 
It is not always easy nor possible to find the source 
of single cases of this or any disease, for the infectious 
germ, carried as dust, may lodge on any article and 
be thus carried to the mouth by food or by hands; 
Oysters, fattened on sewage-polluted water, have 
carried the germ to persons eating them. Clams dug 
out of sewage-saturated flats, when eaten raw, may 
carry the typhoid germ in a similar manner. 
In country places where wells are the source of 
drinking water, or anywhere where surface waters are 
used directly for this purpose, there is great danger 
of contamination from drainage, either from the house, 
its outbuildings, the barn, or manured fields. Con¬ 
taminated water supply is the most common source of 
typhoid infection. 
As the germs causing the disease are thrown out in 
the discharges from the intestines and the kidneys, 
these are the sources of infection. If the discharges 
from the patient and any articles soiled, by these are 
not destroyed by fire or thoroughly disinfected while 
moist, there can be no surety that they may not, either 
as dust or through water, carry infection to someone 
nearby or even far removed. If such care be taken 
for every case of the disease, it will soon be no more 
prevalent than smallpox. 
Eicry case of typhoid fever is due to somebody’s 
