Terrible Typhoid Mary: Chapters 8–9

No one at the health department told the tiny woman that Mary might be difficult. Not Hermann Biggs. Not George Soper. Not even her boss, Dr. Walter Bensel. They kept Mary’s temper and temperament a secret.

In 1907 Baker was one of the few female physicians in New York City. Instead of having a private medical practice, she became a roving inspector for the health department.

Her job took her deep into the Lower East Side’s tenement district, where she worked closely with impoverished mothers and their children.

Her job took her deep into the Lower East Side’s tenement district, where she worked closely with impoverished mothers and their children.

By 1907, the city had initiated public water and public sewer projects, as well as street cleaning and regular garbage removal. The city had also passed the Tenement House Act in order to improve living conditions.

Many people continued to live in dire conditions, especially in the Lower East Side, where large immigrant families and their boarders crowded into two- and three-room flats in over 80,000 tenement buildings.

Many people continued to live in dire conditions, especially in the Lower East Side, where large immigrant families and their boarders crowded into two- and three-room flats in over 80,000 tenement buildings.

Baker was prejudiced when it came to Irish immigrants, whom she called “incredibly shiftless” and “wholly lacking in any ambition and dirty to an unbelievable degree.”

Baker may have felt like a failure, but others knew her as wiry, shrewd, and ingenious.

Baker may have felt like a failure, but others knew her as wiry, shrewd, and ingenious.

Baker may have felt like a failure, but others knew her as wiry, shrewd, and ingenious.

More than likely, her resolve hardened, for this tiny woman—whose friends called her “Dr. Joe” and who wore man-tailored suits and shirts and stiff collars and ties so that her male colleagues didn’t dismiss her or condescend to her because she was female—did not back down from a fight.

Ten years earlier, fresh out of medical school, Baker had slugged a drunken man who had thrown scalding water on his pregnant wife.

But, she added, “I was not glad either—it had just been part of the exigencies of this particular job.”

Escorted by the officer, she approached the kitchen door and knocked. To her shock, Mary had already spotted her and was armed and ready, holding “a long kitchen fork in her hand like a rapier.” She lunged at Baker with the fork.

Euphoric, Baker realized that the maids had helped hide Mary. She admired the way the servants had stuck together, calling it “evidence of class solidarity.”

Euphoric, Baker realized that the maids had helped hide Mary. She admired the way the servants had stuck together, calling it “evidence of class solidarity.”

“She came out fighting and swearing,” wrote Baker, “both of which she could do with appalling efficiency and vigor.”

But talk proved futile. Mary was convinced that the Board of Health was persecuting her when she had done nothing wrong and never had typhoid fever.

But talk proved futile. Mary was convinced that the Board of Health was persecuting her when she had done nothing wrong and never had typhoid fever.

The quarantine hospital was located along the East River on East Sixteenth Street and Second Avenue, on the Lower East Side. There, Mary was sequestered in an outside isolation ward.

The quarantine hospital was located along the East River on East Sixteenth Street and Second Avenue, on the Lower East Side. There, Mary was sequestered in an outside isolation ward.

The hospital was a teaching facility where medical students studied such contagious diseases as measles, smallpox, cholera, typhus, yellow fever, tuberculosis, and typhoid.

In your bladder, the urine is sterile and contains no bacteria unless you’re sick.

Soper was ecstatic about the findings. “The cook was virtually a living culture tube,” he said, just as he had suspected.

Like Dr. Baker, George Soper believed that Mary had no one to blame but herself. “You would not be where you are now if you had not been so obstinate,” he told her. “So throw off your wrong-headed idea and be reasonable.”

As he spoke, Soper noticed that Mary glared at him. By now she had had plenty of time to brood. Her mood did not improve with Soper’s visit and the way he addressed her.

It’s true. Your gallbladder is a small organ, about the size of a pear. It’s located in the upper right quadrant of your abdomen, just below your liver. Its main function is to store the bile produced by your liver.

Stories of murderers and grave robbers who sold bodies to medical doctors for anatomic study and dissection are found in Irish history and folk history.

As Soper talked, Mary remained quiet. Her reticence encouraged him to push on. He would help her, he said. “If you will answer my questions, I will do everything I possibly can to get you out,” he promised.