es from job to job, always seeking to improve her life. After discovering her aptitude in preparing food she becomes a cook. In the summer of 1906, a wealthy banker by the name of Charles Henry Warren rented a large house in Oyster Bay, Long Island as a vacation home for himself and his family. He employs maids, gardeners, and a cook to provide the services at his new home. On the fourth of August, he hires Mary Mallon as the family cook.
             On the twenty-seventh of August, the household is stricken with typhoid fever. The owner of the house, George Thompson, fearful that he will be unable to rent the house ever again, becomes determined to learn the source of the disease. Thus, he hires George Soper, a sanitary engineer, to conduct an investigation. At first, Soper thought soft clams might have been the initial agent. He later, shifts his attention to household members, and finally to the cook. When he learns that Mary Mallon is only hired shortly before the beginning of the illnesses, he becomes convinced that she is a healthy carrier of typhoid fever.
             He tracks Mary Mallon to her new place of employment. He approaches her with all the finesse of a bull in a china shop. He tells her she is spreading disease through the food she cooks and demands that she provides him with stool, urine and blood samples. Mary attacks Soper with a meat fork and he is forced to retreat without any samples.
             Mary Mallon refuses to believe that she is spreading the infectious disease, typhoid fever. She declares that she has never had typhoid in her life. Soper is equally adamant in proving his theory. To do so, he reconstructs Mallon's work history. He finds that in the previous ten years, Mallon had worked as a cook for eight different families. Of the eight, seven families had experienced typhoid outbreaks. He also finds that a total number of twenty-two people have taken ill and one has died.
             ...