FEVFR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 34, 9 February 1875, Page 2

FEVFR.

To thk Editor op this 'Evkxixo Mail.' Fir — Will you oblige by publishing the enclosed from (he Pull Mall Budget of Nov. 13th? The importance of the subject and its local application I hope will elicit tho publication of ihe letter al!u led to from Piofessor Tyndall. I am, &c, M. LIGHTBAND.

"A. letter of thegreitest importance fiom I'rofl-stor Tyndall with reference to tho origiu and mode of propagation of typhoid fever has appeared in the Times. He adduces and powi-rfully supports the arguments and evidence collected by Dr. Budd in his treatise; on 'Typhoid Fever' in the support of the theory that tbe disease is n )t spontaneously' generated hy the d<compo*ition and putrefaf'tion of animnl and vegetable sub'tauees, but ispropngated solely through the medium of matt»-r which hiisalroady beeu in contact with a typhoid patient The • living human body is ilie soil ii which tho specific poison of typhoii fever breeds and multiplies' Piofessor Tyniall relates the hietory of a typical case of typhoid outbreak originating in ihe village of North Ttiwton, and t-hows by tho series of events whicti ie exhibits) that tho disia'e is purely of a con'agu/as nature, that the woivt draned country villages, in the surrounding district escaped bo long as |te specific poison kept bwhv, and were attacked only whtn by some mems or other tlia 1 ; poHon was oonveyel to them. * Ashpits fail to deve:<jp it, putrescence fails to develop it, stench iails to develop i f ; tven the opoi pavy is power fe.^s so Jong a3 (jit is kept fre= from the discharges of thoss Already attacked." The faoitiry measures adapted by Dr. Budd were theee : — (lj. flooding all the drain* of tie place with disinfectants, with a vi w to destioy as f«r as possible the poison already • cast oif; (-2). the reception of all discharges Irom the sick immediately on thtir isßsu« from the body into vessels charged with disinfectants; (3), the instant immersion of all bed and body linen used by the sick into a disinfecting liquid before iis nmoval from the ward ; (4), scrupulous abluion and disinfection of the hands of the nurses ; nnl lastly, the burning or disinfection of all bees occupied by the sick as coon as vscated by death, convalescence or otherwise. By these means, adopted on this occa-ion, ' it may be said that the plugue was instantly stayed '