266  Use  of  Copper  in  Destroying  Typhoid.     { Aw'Anue,\9oTrm' 
water  supplies  being,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  hands  of  municipali- 
ties, there  are  many  factors  which  enter  into  the  problem  and  which 
render  progress  very  slow.  In  this  connection,  however,  it  is  grati- 
fying to  note  that  sufficient  progress  has  been  made,  in  New  York 
City,  for  instance,  to  show  that  the  problem  is  no  longer  to  be 
considered  a  political  or  partisan  one.  In  February  of  this  year  the 
newspapers1  reported  as  follows: 
The  spectacle  of  Mayor  McClellan  and  his  old-time  rival,  ex-Mayor  Seth 
Low,  appealing  to  the  State  Senate  at  Albany  to-day  in  favor  of  the  passage  of 
the  Mayor's  bill  to  furnish  New  York  City  with  a  sufficiency  of  water,  is  a 
somewhat  moving  one.  Mayor  McClellan's  argument  in  support  of  his  own 
bill,  according  to  reports,  was  no  whit  less  earnest  than  that  of  Mr.  Low.  The 
non-partisan  character  of  the  Mayor's  proposal  was  further  attested  by  the  fact 
that  the  measure  was  supported  by  members  of  the  Low  administration. 
The  problem  of  the  purification  of  water  supplies  in  the  United 
States,  barring  lor  the  time  being  the  pollution  caused  by  algae, 
may  be  said  to  consist  essentially  of  a  study  of  typhoid  organisms 
and  of  devising  measures  for  their  eradication. 
THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  TYPHOID  ORGANISMS. 
In  the  American  edition  of  Nothnagel's  Encyclopedia  ot  Prac- 
tical Medicine,  in  the  volume  on  typhoid  fever  and  typhus  fever  by 
Dr.  H.  Curschmann,  edited  with  additions  by  William  Osier,  M.D., 
on  page  38,  it  is  stated  : 
Under  the  most  varied  ordinary  conditions  (not  induced  experimentally)  the 
typhoid  bacillus  is  capable  of  surviving  for  days,  weeks  and  months,  and  even 
for  more  than  a  year,  and  under  favorable  conditions,  even  throughout  the 
winter.  An  additional  conclusion  is  permissible,  namely,  that  not  alone  the 
persistence  of  the  germs,  but  also  their  dissemination  through  the  media 
named  is  certain.  If  in  this  connection  the  liquid  media  in  general  predomi. 
nate,  the  dry  media  are  not  to  be  left  out  of  consideration.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  contagium  attached  to  particles  of  dust  may  be  disseminated  through 
the  air  to  a  limited  degree. 
We  have,  therefore,  the  highest  authority  for  believing  that,  con- 
trary to  the  usual  acceptation,  the  typhoid  organism  may  persist  for 
a  considerable  period  of  time,  and  that  infection  may  occur  in  very 
many  ways,  as  through  drinking-water,  food,  and  even  through  the 
air.    In  my  own  experiments2  I  have  found  that  at  the  ordinary 
1  Public  Ledger,  February  22,  1905. 
1  Paper  read  at  the  general  meeting  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
April  13,  1905. 
