AmjJne,r*i9Po5arm*}     Use  of  Copper  in  Destroying  Typhoid.  267 
temperature  the  typhoid  bacillus  will  live  over  four  months  in  both 
tap  and  distilled  water,  although  the  organism  loses  some  of  its 
characteristics  after  two  months  in  that  bouillon  cultures  will  not 
give  the  agglutinating  test  with  blood  of  a  typhoid  patient. 
While  the  isolation  of  typhoid  organisms  from  water  is  attended 
with  considerable  difficulty,  still  it  has  been  supposed  that  when  the 
water  supplied  a  community  is  free  from  colon  bacilli,  it  is  likewise 
free  from  typhoid  organisms ;  that  is,  the  absence  of  colon  bacilli  is 
considered  to  mean  the  absence  of  sewage  or  fecal  organisms. 
Some  recent  investigations1  would  seem  to  indicate  that  colon  bacilli 
are  more  widely  distributed  than  formerly  supposed  and  that  their 
presence  in  water  may  not  always  indicate  fecal  contamination. 
However  this  may  be  the  absence  of  this  organism  must  still  be 
considered  one  of  the  best  indications  of  an  unpolluted  water. 
Next  to  water,  milk  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  most  common 
sources  of  typhoid  fever ;  but  where  the  matter  has  been  investi- 
gated it  has  been  found  that  the  milk  was  contaminated  with  water 
containing  sewage  organisms.  Chapin,  in  his  book  on  "  Municipal 
Sanitation  in  the  United  States,"  page  511,  cites  an  instance  of  this 
kind  in  the  tracing  of  an  epidemic  of  typhoid  fever  in  Springfield, 
Mass.,  some  years  ago.    He  says : 
The  contents  of  the  privy  were  spread  on  a  lot  near  the  well,  and  the  men 
walked  over  this  in  going  to  the  well,  and  their  boots  were  rinsed  off  on  the 
planking  over  the  well  and  the  water  below.  In  this  water  Bacillus  coli  was 
found.  The  cans  of  milk  were  cooled  in  this  well  and  it  was  found  that  the 
water  leaked  into  the  cans.  Another  chance  for  contamination  was  directly 
from  the  infected  hands  of  convalescents. 
Oysters  and  shell-fish  taken  from  beds  near  where  sewage  is  dis- 
charged have  also  been  lound  to  be  a  source  of  the  disease. 
Recently  it  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Benjamin  Lee,2  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  Board  of  Health,  that  water-cress  may  collect  a  suffi- 
cient amount  of  extraneous  organic  matter  containing  colon  bacilli 
to  be  a  source  of  infection. 
While  it  is  usually  conceded  that  typhoid  organisms  are  chiefly 
disseminated  through  water  and  milk,  yet  the  free  use  which  is 
made  of  privy  manure  or  night-soil  in  some  localities  as  a  fertilizer 
1  Erastus  G.  Smith.  Note  on  the  occurrence  on  grain  of  organisms  resem- 
bling the  Bacillus  coli  communis.    Science,  12,  No.  540,  May  5,  1905,  p.  710. 
2  Editorial  comment  in  Amer.  Medicine,  November  26,  1904,  p.  906. 
