How flies carry typhoid germs
How did the germs get to your food? About the time that the germs were thawed out, and were beginning to double in number every hour or two, along came a fly and thought that spot an attractive one for a lunch. Accordingly he walked over this mass of filth, collecting a supply of germs on his feet, and then came in and tracked them over your bread and butter or other food.
Fig. 58. Flies crawling on the edge of the glass or falling into the milk leave germs that cause disease.
How typhoid germs get into milk
That is how you got the fever; but the trouble did not stop with you. When you fell sick, your father thought it was time to clean the yard, but he was not very careful what he did with the dirt, including the typhoid fever discharges which the nurse threw out on the snow during the winter. There was a low place in the barnyard and there he dumped the dirt. One of the cows thought this fresh pile of dirt would make a comfortable place to lie down in. The next morning the milkman milked her without first washing her sides and udder, and hundreds of little particles of dirt, each one loaded with germs, fell into the milk. The milk from all the cows was mixed together, and by the time it got to town these germs had grown into many thousands. Some of the people who drank the milk became ill with typhoid fever and wondered afterward where they had taken this disease.
Why the recovered patient is dangerous
The discharges from a typhoid fever patient contain typhoid germs not only while the disease lasts, but for many months after the patient is well. In some cases they are present for years after the illness is over.
The story of the careless nurses