The sources and modes of infection / by Charles V. Chapin.

  • Charles V. Chapin
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The sources and modes of infection / by Charles V. Chapin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    days for the bacilli, and they were found, but not constantly, for periods varying from 10 to 31 days. The author con- siders that these experiments demonstrate the possibility of the transmission of typhoid fever by means of uncooked vegetables grown in infected soil, and so they do. Yet it often happens that the soil is manured a long time before the seed is planted, so that the bacilli have a chance to die out, and doubtless often the conditions are less favorable than in the experiments, owing to excessive rains, or pro- longed drought, or very hot weather; and it is also true that the use of fresh night soil as a fertilizer in the more civilized countries is rapidly diminishing, so that it is not unlikely, after, all, that raw vegetables are only occasionally a source of typhoid fever. If, too, as now seems probable, bacilli in feces are less resistant than those from cultures, the danger would be less than at first sight appears from these experiments. There can, however, be no doubt that this is a real source of danger, and that human excrement should not be used for fertilizing vegetables and low-growing fruits which are to be eaten raw. The futility of attempting to cleanse them by ordinary washing or rinsing is shown by Creel, who without success tried to cleanse a lettuce leaf by three washings with a pipette and by stirring in water. Typhoid Bacilli in Feces.— According to Park,1 typhoid bacilli soon die out in feces, usually in a few hours, but he has recovered them up to the tenth day. He suggested that this variation may depend on the constitution of the feces. On the other hand, Levy and Kayser2 note the persistence of typhoid bacilli in a cemented privy vault up to 5 months, and Pfuhl3 recovered them after 3 months from feces mixed with garden earth. Dele*pine4 states that typhoid bacilli 1 Park, J. Am. M. Asa., Chicago, 1907, XLIX, 852. 2 Levy and Kayser, Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. [etc.], I Abt. Orig.. Jena 1902, XXXIII, 489. * Pfuhl, Ztschr. f. Hyg. u. Infectionskrankh., Leipz., 1902, XL, 555. 4 Del6pine, Rep. Health of Manchester, 1907, 82.