FOUL FISH AND FILTH FEVERS. 315 



1876 and 1877. Previous to 1878 the town of Astrakhan during the last twenty-two 

 years had suffered nine epidemic attacks of cholera and three of enteric fever. 



Further statistics or observations of the twelve years ending 1878 recorded only 

 one birth for every 36-5 persons, whilst one death took place for every 21 inhabitants 

 of Astrakhan. Or, in other words, owing to preventable diseases due to avoidable 

 filth, the population of Astrakhan would gradually become extinct were it not con- 

 tinually recruited and increased from external sources. 



SUDDEN SPORADIC DISEASES ON SHIPS AT SEA. 



On ships which have not touched laud for months, when still at sea, if sporadic 

 disease suddenly breaks out on board, this suggests overcrowding, dirt, putrefaction, 

 infected drinking water, etc., with perhaps bad or scanty food plus privation, exhaus- 

 tion, and the like, consequent upon continued foul weather, accidents at sea, etc. 

 Below deck a ship is a floating house or hospital where the bacteria of disease may 

 long remain dormant, till enabled to infect increasingly debilitated x>eople. 



Under favorable conditions and circumstances, where sufficient filth, heat, and 

 moisture exist, there the latent, dormant, or passive germs of infectious disease are 

 probably permanently present. These home-grown, indigenous, or endemic bacteria 

 fortunately only occasionally assume the virulent aud active pathogenic types, which 

 produce epidemics. 



In addition to the endemic form of contagion of course there is also the spread of 

 infection by means of infected persons, clothing, etc. Passive or active germs, like 

 plants, seeds, spores, etc., or animals and their eggs, etc., can also be imported and 

 introduced as exotics or "foreigners" from abroad. Hence, in rare cases, there may 

 be in the same place a series of contagious epidemics caused conjointly, alternately, or 

 successively by the action of home-grown bacteria and by imported foreign bacteria. 



FISH AND SPECIAL DISEASES. 



Fish, filth, and poverty have also been suspected of producing such skin com- 

 plaints as elephantiasis and ichthyosis (fish-skin disease), besides causing beri-beri, a 

 tropical disease characterized by anaemia, paralysis, dropsies, dyspnoea, etc. 



Decomposed animal or vegetable matter tends to propagate and circulate fever 

 and disease. Fish putrefies quicker than meat, game, poultry, fruit or vegetables. 

 Indeed fishermen themselves are so acutely alive to the early rapid putrefaction of 

 fish that an ancient and still familiar name for a kind of rock or whiting pouter is the 

 " stink-alive." 



Of all our food industries, none is so constantly and belligerently offensive as 

 the proverbial fish and fish-offal trades, as a visit to bacterial Billingsgate and its 

 abominable colossal underground vaults will prove. 



HEREDITARY SUSCEPTIBILITIES TO "FILTH" DISEASES. 



Recent history confirms that disease and death from " filth " fevers may be increased 

 by hereditary tendencies. H. R. H. the late prince consort, Prince Albert, is reported 

 to have died frem typhoid fever, probably produced by the filthy emanations from a 

 dust bin, accidentally placed near his bedroom window. His son, H. R. H. the Prince 

 of Wales, very nearly died of typhoid fever, caught whilst on a visit to a nobleman 



