among the employees in the factories at Lowell, Mass., seemed to confirm this view. A young woman from New Hampshire, employed in one of the mills, returned from a visit to that state and was soon taken sick with the fever. The discharges were emptied into the brick vault of the boarding house. Soon others, numbering over two hundred, were attacked with the same fever. An examination disclosed the fact that this vault had cracked, allowing a portion of its contents to escape and that it had found its way to the well from which the drinking water of the boarding house was supplied. Here were cases arising from decomposed human fæces, but there was no suggestion of specific germs. Subsequent to Koch's announcement of his discovery of the bacilli of tuberculosis we find in Pepper's "System of Medicine," published in 1885, that Hutchinson, in his article on typhoid fever, gives as the cause of this disease "atmospheric conditions," "spontaneous origin of poisons from decomposition of animal matter, especially human fæces which had polluted water," but says nothing about germs. As late as 1892 Dr. Osler, in discussing the question of a germ being the cause of this fever, said "our knowledge on this subject is very defective." In 1895 Ernest Hart, editor of the British Medical Journal, published an exhaustive résumé of the cause of typhoid fever in a series of papers on "The water-born germ of typhoid fever." Many others contributed to the study of this disease and, finally, it became recognized that while filth and unsanitary conditions prepare the system, the disease of typhoid fever can be induced only by a specific germ. These bacteria may be found in milk, water, and oysters; may be communicated by flies or by the carelessness of the nurse in not properly caring for the discharges of both fæces and urine. In the cases where the disease has been produced by eating shell fish contaminated by the typhoid bacilli the disease has developed, usually, within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, the onset being manifested by disturbance of the alimentary canal, with chills followed by fever. The most pronounced epidemic in recent years in the state was at Windsor in 1894, when within a few days 160 cases developed, resulting in eighteen deaths. Investigation showed that a man came to town from a New Hampshire village where they were having typhoid fever, to a house on a hillside where the drainage was into small brook which was tributary to the stream that furnished the village reservoir with water. He was slightly ill at the time, having diarrhoea with fever; his discharges were thrown into the usual outhouse, standing on the sidehill near the house. This was in March; a rain came, with a thaw; the melting snow and rain water flowed down the sidehill, taking with it the contents of the outhouse vault and, in this way, the water in the reservoir became polluted with the discharges from this typhoid fever patient, with the result before stated. The other epidemic was in Barre, in 1897, 140 cases with eighteen deaths. The cause of this was from similar circumstances: a person coming from another state sick with typhoid fever; his discharges were thrown out on the ground and were washed into the stream near by, thus polluting the source of the city's water supply. We cannot urge too strongly the necessity that great care should always be taken in disposing of the secretions of cases of this disease. The following table gives the deaths since registration was first established in this state: REGISTRATION BEGAN IN THIS STATE IN 1857. The deaths for each decade from Typhoid Fever have been as follows: For the first ten years, ending with 1866, were 2,601 For the second The first five years there was an average of 870; the last five years 406. Five towns which unfortunately have had a polluted water supply, resulting in cases of typhoid at all times of the year, have had in the last five years 672 cases with 54 deaths, which is 131⁄2 per cent of all deaths from this disease in the state. During 1906 43 per cent of all deaths from typhoid fever occurred in these towns. We are pleased to know that these towns each have, or are to have, a pure water supply. REPORT OF EXAMINATIONS AT THE LABORATORY FROM FEBRUARY 20 TO MAY 10, 1907 MISCELLANEOUS FOOD AND DRUG ANALYSES MADE DURING FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, AND UP TO MAY 10, 1907 Remedy tarrhal Remedy Catarrh Cure Agts., Boston A. P. Bush & Co., Boston 47589 Dr. Sage's Catarrh World's Dispensary Medical F. H. Parker, Bur- Co., Chicago, Ill. Co., Buffalo, N. Y. 47569 Dr. A. W. Chase's Dr. A. W. Chase Medicine] Total, 15 13 2 8 7 46844 3-4-07 Nutcos " Glucose 46849 3-20-07 Butter Scotch 20c. G. I. Green, St. Johnsbury 15c. Geo. H. Cross, 1c. Arbuckle & Co., .032 Anilin 66 Burlington Trace sulphites; Total, 37 37 |