at the dairyman's wife, who was "ailing." He diagnosed the case immediately as incipient typhoid, and the milk man, whose milk house, by the way, was quite a fly trap, was told that he must take his wife immediately to a hospital at Hibbing or elsewhere, or stop doing business. He chose the former alternative. This case is mentioned as showing the need of constant, intelligent supervision of these people on the part of conscientous experts. Why more of them do not die of typhoid, under existing conditions, is a wonder! The same kindly providence which keeps an intoxicated man from harm must be caring for them in their blind ignorance!
The epidemic of typhoid last summer, at Hibbing, at least, did not originate in the water. Nor could we trace the disease along any milk route, in spite of the filthy conditions in connection with dairies. It is interesting to conjecture at this point just how dangerous it is to eat dry food contaminated with typhoid germs from a fly's body. Moist food, of course, so impregnated, would, in the majority of cases, be far more dangerous, and of all the moist foods, milk is perhaps one of the best culture fluids for these germs. It is not improbable, then, that although, by some lucky accident, typhoid did not originate in the dairies themselves, and the milk was brought to the consumer in a fairly good condition, it was there, in the house, in many cases, inoculated by filthy flies, and the numbers of the deadly bacilli tremendously increased.
