Some Causes of Typhoid Fever
By L. A. S.
TYPHOID fever is commonly caused by the drinking of impure water, but certain other causes of this grave malady are being pointed out, to which it is well to call attention. That whisky drinking is a frequent cause of typhoid is asserted by Dr. George W. Webster, president of the Illinois State board of health. In a recent address before the Chicago Young Men’s Christian Association Dr. Webster said:— “Do not drink whisky if you wish to avoid typhoid fever. It lowers the vitality and prevents perfect digestion, and there is nothing more conducive to stomach troubles than whisky. A low vitality and imperfect digestive organs invite typhoid fever.” Evidence of the connection of this popular edible with outbreaks of typhoid is now ample and well established. Attention has been recently called to this fact in New York City, in the neighborhood of which many oyster beds have been found to be contaminated with sewage, and drainage from cemeteries. Dr. Cyrus W. Field, assistant bacteriologist of the city health department, in a recent talk before the county medical society told of some experiments with typhoid-infected oysters at the aquarium. It was proved, he said, that oysters carry the typhoid bacilli alive for nine days. It was found also that many oysters die in transit from salt water to fresh, and in dead and dying oysters the bacilli increase rapidly. The New York Times, in a recent editorial calling attention to this matter, said:— “It is well established that the oyster may be, and frequently is, the agent in transmitting this disease [typhoid]; that when taken from polluted water, it holds the infection with considerable tenacity, and that in the presence of ice as usually employed in cooling oysters and clams for the table, the malignant energy of the bacillus typhosus seems to be at its maximum. “To determine whether the oysters which supply the New York market are exposed to contamination an investigation was undertaken by Walter Bensel, M. D., assistant sanitary superintendent of the health department. What has already been learned is that many of the fattening and bleaching beds are covered with sewage-polluted water, and that to oysters from such beds a number of typhoid epidemics in this and other countries have been traced unmistakably. In several cases the presence of the bacillus coli communis in great quantities in the waters of the creeks and inlets used for bleaching beds was discovered. “The investigations of Dr. Bensel were conducted along the shores of Long Island, on the west side of Staten Island, along the New Jersey coast, and up the Sound as far as New Haven and its neighborhood. Sanitary surveys were made and photographs taken, the latter showing that in a great many instances the brackish waters in which the ‘drinking’ beds are established are heavily polluted with sewage and filth, and that nothing which comes out of them is safe for food until sterilized by cooking. This is as far as the investigation has gone.” Prevention is always better than cure, but how very much better when it is a case of typhoid fever caused by drinking whisky or eating a sewage-polluted oyster.