the tavern, but had its own water-supply. The occurrence of the disease naturally produced great excitement, and Stearns, between whom and the tavern-keeper a quarrel existed, was suspected of having poisoned the well; but an examination of the water showed this suspicion to be unfounded. There can, however, be little doubt that the water of the well, which was in all probability contaminated by the discharges of the stranger, was the means of propagating the disease; for although it is said that the family of Stearns was cut off by the quarrel from all intercourse with that of the tavern-keeper--a fact upon which some stress is laid by Flint--it does not appear that a similar isolation existed as regards the other families affected.[27] [Footnote 27: _A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Medicine_, by Austin Flint, M.D., Philadelphia, 1868.] The manner in which the arrival of a sick person may cause the dissemination of the disease in a previously healthy community is even better shown by the following histories of local outbreaks:[28] "The water-supply pipes of the town of Over Darwen were leaky, and the soil through which they passed was soaked at one spot by the sewage of a particular house. No harm resulted till a young lady suffering from typhoid fever was brought to this house from a distant place. Within three weeks of her arrival the disease broke out and 1500 persons were attacked. At Nunney a number of houses received their water-supply from a foul brook contaminated by the leakage of a cesspool of one of the houses, but no fever showed itself till a man ill with typhoid came from a distance to this house. In about fourteen days an outbreak of fever took place in all the houses." [Footnote 28: Wm. Cayley, M.D., _Brit. Med. Jour._, March 15, 1880.]