h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Was Tony Labella also a cook? What nationality was he? Being a "feisty" Irishwoman is never an easy option in life; i squeak from experience, but also having been responsible for cooking for people, i always erred on the side of extreme caution re: hygiene issues; but probably in those days they weren't aware of methods of disease transmission.

Very interesting Guide Entry.

zdt

Hi Terri, sorry I missed this last night - I'd just logged off when you posted it.


I don't know what nationality Tony was, but he did have a wife and family to support - so that may have been why he was treated differently.

I think because she was the first known case of a healthy carrier she was the one that they tried all the *how not to do it* methods.

It's kinda like salmonella today - if you've ever had it you're not allowed to work in a kitchen *ever* - but I wonder how many folks out there have had it and never know - I don't think all kitchen staff are tested for it before taking up their work.

Tony Labella was an Italian immigrant. While he may have been just as obstinate initially as was Mary Mallon, Tony agreed to leave food service, meet regularly with health authorities, and provide stool samples. In exchange for his agreement, he was released from quarantine and permitted to pursue work outside the food industry. He worked as a laborer. His situation was more typical of carriers than was Mary's.

Mary also agreed to leave food service and began working as a laundress, but as the Researcher states, she broke her agreement, disappeared as Mary Mallon, reappeared under a false identity, returned to food service, spread infection, and was discovered during a subsequent typhoid outbreak investigation. Perhaps if Tony Labella followed suit, we would also have the phrase "Typhoid Tony." We should at least have the phrase "Typhoid Alphonse" after Alphonse Cotils, another New Yorker and typhoid carrier, who like Mary Mallon, violated his agreement not to prepare foods for others.

Typhoid was fairly common in the early 1900s, and Mary was far from the only carrier. (She was however the first carrier who was never known to be ill from the disease.) There were thousands of known carriers in New York, and there would have been no way to keep them all in quarantine. New York health authorities held carriers in quarantine only until they agreed to some rules about leaving food service and regular meetings with health authorities.

Mary was described as an educated, literate person, and as such could have secured non-cooking employment that paid at least as well. However, as the Researcher points out, she refused to believe test results showing that she carried the disease, and she was fiercely determined to return to employment as a cook. Perhaps her return to quarantine was not so much a miscarriage of justice as it was the health authorities' acknowledgement that they could not track a non-cooperative disease carrier determined to break an agreement made, use a phoney name, etc.

During the period of time that Mary Mallon's saga unfolded, the Germ Theory of Disease (diseases are caused by germs) was increasingly acceptanced, while the "spontaneous generation" idea (organisms including disease-causing organisms just spontaneously happen) was fading, though maybe not quickly enough. But perhaps even a educated, literate person such as Mary Mallon could be forgiven for holding fast to the old ideas of disease transmission when even the simple idea of handwashing was slow to make its way through the ranks of medical doctors, much less food handlers.

Researchers traveling to areas where typhoid outbreaks occur can get vaccinations, but these are not 100% effective, so a good rule is "boil it, cook it, peel it, or forget it." Hand-washing with clean water before eating also helps reduce the chances of contracting the disease. The disease typhoid fever is caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi which lives only in humans. Sick persons and well-carriers shed S. Typhi in their stools. The transmission of the bacterium from one person to the next is fecal-oral. (Disgusting, sorry. )Thus, the bacterium is carried back to the kitchen on the hands, where it is transferred to the food, and introduced through the mouth to the next human gut, where the cycle begins anew. Another method of transmission is when food-washing water is contaminated with sewage.

Thank you for that very complete and informative post Happy_Nerd.

And thank you, Fizzymouse, for your entry!

You're welcome.

Your Chocolate Mole was quite an entry too but a bit too adventurous for my palate - I can't bear peppers - I look forward to reading more of your work in Peer Review.

Chocolate Mole?? Good grief, whatever next, toffee-coated shrews? Sounds fascinating!!!

zdt

Toffee-coated shrews? Well, Terri, if that's the sort of recipe you are looking for, you might try Nanny Ogg's Cookbook by Pratchett et al. I think there is a toffee rat on a stick recipe you might be able to adapt.

Good luck and bon appitit!