1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,960 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Heart Radio Hi um Eve's Welcome to This Day in 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:10,760 Speaker 1: History Class, a show that reveals a little bit more 4 00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:25,079 Speaker 1: about history day by day. Today is March. The day 5 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:31,440 Speaker 1: was March nineteen fifteen. A cook named Mary Mallon, also 6 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:35,240 Speaker 1: known as typhoid Mary, was quarantined for the last time. 7 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:41,000 Speaker 1: Mary had been infecting people with Salmonella TYPEE, the bacterium 8 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: that causes typhoid fever, for years. She had been quarantined 9 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: once before and then released, but this time Mary was 10 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 1: quarantined for good on North Brother Island in New York 11 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: City's East River. Mary Mallon was born in eighteen sixty 12 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:01,600 Speaker 1: nine in Ireland and moved to the United States in 13 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:05,600 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three or eighteen eighty four, just a few 14 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 1: years before scientists confirmed that salmonella caused typhoid fever, a 15 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,360 Speaker 1: disease spread through contaminated food and water that can be 16 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,399 Speaker 1: deadly if left untreated. People who have had the illness 17 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:22,759 Speaker 1: can become carriers of the bacteria and cause outbreaks. When 18 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: Mary moved to the US, she became a domestic servant, 19 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,400 Speaker 1: usually taking cook jobs. In nineteen o six, Mary took 20 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: a summer job as a cook for New York banker 21 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:37,039 Speaker 1: Charles Henry Warren and his family an Oyster Bay, Long Island, 22 00:01:37,959 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: but on August one of the daughters got typhoid fever. 23 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: Then Warren's wife, two maids, the gardener, and another daughter 24 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:51,919 Speaker 1: caught typhoid. By September three, six of the eleven people 25 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:56,120 Speaker 1: in the house had gotten sick with typhoid fever. At 26 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: this time, typhoid fever was fatal in about ten percent 27 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: of cases is The Warrens were renting the home from 28 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: George Thompson, who was scared that he wouldn't be able 29 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:08,520 Speaker 1: to rent the house again without finding out where the 30 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: outbreak started. So after hiring investigators who couldn't track down 31 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: the source, Thompson landed on George Soper, a New York 32 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: City Department of Health sanitary engineer who specialized in typhoid 33 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:27,239 Speaker 1: fever epidemics. Soaper first thought that freshwater clams were responsible 34 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: for the outbreak, but soon after realizing not everyone who 35 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: had the illness had eaten the clams, he began to 36 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: suspect Mary was the source. He researched Mary's employment history 37 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: back to nineteen hundred and he discovered that everywhere Mary 38 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: popped up, so did typhoid outbreaks. From nineteen hundred to 39 00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 1: nineteen oh seven, twenty two people exhibited signs of typhoid 40 00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 1: fever at seven places where Mary worked, including some people 41 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: who died. While Soper was digging into Mary's past. She 42 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: kept working in households around New York City as a cook. 43 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: But Soper was convinced Mary was the issue. He tried 44 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: to get samples of her feces, urine, and blood, but 45 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:15,040 Speaker 1: she was not willing to cooperate. Here's what Soper later 46 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:18,799 Speaker 1: said about one of his encounters with Mary. I had 47 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: my first talk with Mary in the kitchen of this house. 48 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: I was as diplomatic as possible, but I had to 49 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:27,600 Speaker 1: say I suspected her of making people sick, and that 50 00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 1: I wanted specimens of her urine, feces, and blood. It 51 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: did not take Mary long to react to this suggestion. 52 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: She seized a carving fork and advanced in my direction. 53 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: I passed rapidly down the long, narrow hall, through the 54 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: tall iron gate, and so to the sidewalk. I felt 55 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,600 Speaker 1: rather lucky to escape. That's how well she reacted when 56 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,120 Speaker 1: Soaper tried to get samples from her again, so the 57 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: Health Department put Dr. Sarah Josephine Baker in the case, 58 00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: and Baker forcibly took Mary to the Willard Parker Hospital, 59 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: where they found Salmonella typhee in her stool. Mary was 60 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: the first asymptomatic carrier of typhoid to be identified. In 61 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:13,720 Speaker 1: nineteen o seven, about three thousand people in New York 62 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: had been infected with the bacterium, and Mary was pegged 63 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,560 Speaker 1: as being responsible for all those cases. At this time, 64 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 1: there was no immunization or antibiotic treatment for Salmonella TYPEE. 65 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,480 Speaker 1: Since Mary wouldn't agree to have her gallbladder removed, which 66 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: was a risky operation, then the Health Department sent her 67 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:37,159 Speaker 1: to live in isolation on North Brother Island. While she 68 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:40,560 Speaker 1: was quarantined, she was subjected to all sorts of testing, 69 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:44,080 Speaker 1: though nobody had explained to her what being a carrier 70 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 1: of Salmonella TYPEE meant. She didn't know how she could 71 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: be spreading typhoid yet never have had the disease, as 72 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: she wasn't aware that a person could have typhoid fever 73 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: but not show its usual symptoms like fever, headaches, and diarrhea. 74 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,560 Speaker 1: She felt persecuted and like a peep show for everybody, 75 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,640 Speaker 1: as she put it so. In nineteen o nine she 76 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:10,000 Speaker 1: sued the Health Department, but to no avail. Nineteen o 77 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: nine was also the year an article in New York 78 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: American first dubbed her Typhoid Mary. She wasn't released from 79 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: quarantine until February nineteenth, nineteen ten, under the condition that 80 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: she never worked as a cook again. But Mary went 81 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: back to cooking when the pay from just working as 82 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,159 Speaker 1: a laundress wasn't cutting it. When a typhoid epidemic broke 83 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: out at Sloan Maternity Hospital in Manhattan and a sanatorium 84 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,680 Speaker 1: in Newfoundland, New Jersey, sop were tracked down Mary, who 85 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: had worked at both places. On March nineteen fifteen, the 86 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: New York Sanitary Police found her in a home in 87 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:53,520 Speaker 1: Westchester County, New York, and sent her back to North 88 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: Brother Island. She lived out the rest of her days 89 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,080 Speaker 1: there in quarantine, and she died in nineteenth or v 90 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:04,919 Speaker 1: eight years after a stroke had paralyzed her. Estimates have 91 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,400 Speaker 1: directly linked her to more than fifty cases of typhoid fever, 92 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:13,359 Speaker 1: including three deaths. Mary Mallan became known as the woman 93 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:16,119 Speaker 1: who got a lot of other people sick with typhoid fever. 94 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,520 Speaker 1: But her story raises questions about how disease carriers have 95 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,160 Speaker 1: been treated in the US health care system and how 96 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:26,359 Speaker 1: the line between civil liberties and public health should be drawn. 97 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,680 Speaker 1: By the time she died, hundreds of other healthy carriers 98 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:34,159 Speaker 1: have been identified, though none received the treatment and enduring 99 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: stigma she did. I'm eave Stepco and hopefully you know 100 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 101 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:46,800 Speaker 1: Keep up with us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at 102 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:51,560 Speaker 1: t D i h C podcast. Thanks for tuning in, 103 00:06:51,720 --> 00:07:00,840 Speaker 1: and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcast from iHeart Radio, 104 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,599 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 105 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.