There are other sources of the disease; for instance, there have been a number of small epidemics undoubtedly caused by infected oysters. One of the unpleasant habits of the oystermen is to bring in oysters from the ocean and leave them for a few days in shallow water where they may plump up or fatten, and they have found by experience that this fattening occurs more rapidly in dirty water. If the oysters are fattened in sewage-polluted water, the typhoid germs get inside the shell in the oyster liquor and are thus transmitted to those persons who eat the oysters raw. Some kinds of food may transmit the disease: lettuce and celery, for instance, if washed in contaminated water or handled by persons with unclean hands or perhaps fertilized with manure containing typhoid germs. Finally, it is possible to acquire the disease by direct contact--not that the germs of typhoid are in the air in the room where a typhoid fever patient is lying, but rather that the nurse in some way soils her hands and then infects herself by putting her fingers in her mouth, or handles dishes or food afterwards used by other people, and so infects those others. It is not uncommon, for example, to see food partly consumed by a sick person given to children, or it may be that a child in the sick room is fed dainties prepared for the use of the patient. The result of such division of food is very apt to be a division of the sickness to the injury of the child. _Treatment of typhoid fever._ So far as present knowledge extends, the disease is one best treated by being let alone, with some moderate modification. When germs have been swallowed and when the vitality of the individual is such that the disease is contracted (happily, as has already been said, only about 10 per cent of those into whom the germ effects an entrance are inoculated), the first stage in the disease is a multiplication of the germs. This constitutes what is known as the incubation period, and lasts about ten days. During this time, the individual feels uneasy, has more or less headache and backache, and loses mental energy. The typhoid bacillus during this time spreads into almost every organ and tissue of the body, and towards the end of the period, when the resisting forces of the body have been proved unable to counteract the attack and the fever is well developed, the condition of the patient is deplorable. The bacteria are everywhere throughout the system, although they are especially active in the small intestines. This inflammation may produce ulceration and the blood vessels may be attacked, so that hemorrhages or even peritonitis may occur. A slight rash appears on the body, and a peculiar appearance of the tongue is to be found in severe cases. In from two to four weeks, the battle has been decided, and if the resisting forces prevail, the fever stops, and the patient begins to get well. This means probably, not that the bacilli are all dead, but that