TYPHOID FEVER.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1560, 4 July 1882, Page 2

TYPHOID FEVER.

The San Francisco News Letter of a recent date says :— Thyphoid fever has already proved fatal to 34 persons since the* first of January. This is at the rate of 200 in the year. There are no Chinese returns of this disease, consequently, the deaths registered are of whites. In this city, therefore, the death rate from typhoid fever is 94 in 100,000 living. In Paris the death rate from this cause is 23, and in London, 23, in 100,000. This frightful state of matters seems to justify a few common-sense remarks. It is not our intention to trench upon the province of the physician, indeed our main object will be to inculcate the importance of consulting him at the earliest approach, of the disease, and of a strict compliance with professional advice. Typhoid fever is a germ disease. That i&, it is an animated molecule which is propogated within the human body, and gives rise to a sort of terment of the blood, accompanied by fever, wasting of the tissues, a peculiar affection of the intestinal glands, and, when fatal, it kills by exhaustion, perforation of the bowels, hemorrhage or congestion of the lungs or brain. The germs of typhoid, like those of smallpox and measles, lie dormant for a period of about eleven days. The first approach is always most msiduous. People gg about their business and their pleasuvsg&ftcjarcely knowing that there i& anythifig^lie matter. They feel only an indefinite malaise, with a seuce of weakness and loss of appetite. There is often unusual somnolence. The first symptoms are often mistaken for a billions attack, and, as aperients are often taken with relief, recourse is had to them. But nothing is more dangerous or ntoic likely to aggravate the progress of the fever. Equally ill consequences are apt to follow the use of tonics and rich food, while the most fatal results may be anticipated by prolongued muscular exertion, taken by ignorant persons with the object of breaking up the fever by air, exercise and perspiration. The typhoid fever germs may be taken into the body by the use of infected milk, polluted water or infected air. The germs of a single action of the bowels are sufficient to infect a thousand people, if distributed in water. At Gver-Darwen the water supply became contaminated with typhoid germs and 1,200 persons in a population of 4,000 were stricken down within fifteen days. There is no authenticated instance in San Francisco of typhoid poisoning through, the medium of milk. Water derives its dangerous quality from sewers and cesspools, the contents of which escape into the wells. No shallow well is safe 1 in San Francisco. Filterld Spring Valley water may be regarded as a safe and wholesome beverage. All other water should be subjected to prolonged boiling, and a small quantity of peamanganate of potass may also be added, with advantage. The most .common source of typhoid poisoning is undoubtedly sewer gas, and the virulence of the germs is increased by overcrowded and ill-ventilated houses. It is no argument to say that the sewer men escape. They become- acclimated, but tlie^ number >of jinen. so engaged is small, and instances are not wanting of their having *been prostrated- by the sewer emanations. They are, for the most part, hale and unhealthy in appearance I ,' and drink heavily. The virulence of sewer gas is not to be estimated by the degree of smell, The smells of gluemaking and soap-boiling are said to be healthful, and, although excessively disagreeable, are not injurious, whilst an emanation from- the .sewer, -perfectly inodorous, may communicate a fatal fever. Nevertheless, the virulence of a typhoid atmosphere is diminished and its danger absolutely destroyed .by .ventilation. Now; \ hat fever hospitals^ h&Cko'jm&l^ ventilated, the attending 7 nurses x^gd^ physicians rarely take the' disease* "i<bu^^i a 1 close and-' unwholesome atmosphere, llf|j§ attendants on !^th < e^*Bicfc«are> < nnyo vv v t 1 !safJipi Once/, lodged in the systOmV^stKe^ fever - 4 TOftesues jita > courWr»^the ; _fasnion;;pf measles :and k |Bjtnwjpox.iAxTo * one, 'would-; be; so Jmad^as^^pffp^thd;;' .(w'ursadf/me^les^yianyAadlen'ii Triterfei-

in his very serious attack, says that he has never known a case of typhoid fever exit short by any remedial agent — that is, it cannot be broken up or cured. The natural duration of the fever is twenty-eight or thirty clays. Now and then it absorbs on the fourteenth day, or tei minutes in a oiisis on the twonty-lirst, but such remissions are to be regarded with suspicion, and every precaution should be continued until the full period has elapsed. Death is most to be apprehended in the third week, but until health is completely re-established the patient is never out of danger. The fever is prolonged by local lesiena, by a re-in-fection of the body from the patient's own secretions, or from a fresh dose of sewer gas. Errors of diet are always dangerous, and a meal of meat has often proved fatal in o few hours. Typhoid fever is occasionally followed by an eruption of boils, abscesses, by paralysis, by diseases of the bones ; and it is often a year or two before the patient is restored to perfect health. The iirst thing in the treatment of typhoid fever is to ascertain the source of the disease, in order to protect the patient from a constant renewal of the poison. Suppose, for example, it is the well. Throughout there will be great and continuous thirst ; an limited supply of drink will be required. If we administer infected water, it is obvious that the patient will die. Or, suppose it is infected air, it is before all things necessary to remove the patient to a purer atmospheie. A few examples will best illustrate the importance of these precautions. Mr A. 8., aged 26, a dry-goods clerk, was seized typhoid fever. He occupied a small room at the top of a large boarding-house on Sixth street. There was a closet and bath-room close to the door, which was the source of the disease. The fever became worse and worse, and on the fourteenth nay he was removed to a good room on Powell street, when a change for the better ensued, and his reooveiy was satisfactory. Five cases of typhoid occurred in one family on Fremont street. Four were treated in the house, and all died. One was removed, and recovered. A gentleman had typhoid fever on California street. He was sent home to bed. His bedroom was large and airy, but in the basement, and theie veie lat holes under the wash-stand. All ratholes communicate with sewers. He was told he would die if he remained there. He was removed to an upper room, where there was no wash-stand, and the fever passed away mildly on the twenty-eighth day. Typhoid fever is rarely conti acted in the daytime. An exception now and then occurs. A young man at eighteen was engaged in a store on Washington near Davis. The sewage ebbed and flowed with the tide into the basement. He was frightfully infected, and made matters worse by the use of violent aperients. He was removed home, and recovered after a most severe attack. His master had occupied the same store for eighteen yeais, and had enjoyed good health all the time. Most generally the disease is contracted in the bedroom, and it is not always possible to tiace its means of entrance. The plumbing may be good and the traps perfect, and yot the experienced physician will be satisfied of the air impurity. In all such cases the first condition necessary for successful treatment is removal ! to an unsuspected atmosphere. The best place in a California house is the parlor. There are no washatands, no closet or bath-room on the floor ; there is the possibility of a fiie, and by means of it plenty of pure air and ventilation. These are precautions which every one is capable of understanding.