TYPHOID-FEVER POISON. 517 



ning- of September a period of continuous dry weather characterized the 

 month ; there may have been one or two slight showers, but not suffi- 

 cient to change the general condition of dryness of earth and air. 

 During this drought the well at s gave out, and continued dry until re- 

 plenished by the late fall rains. The wind, blowing generally from the 

 west and northwest, served to keep the temperature down, but not to 

 lessen the unpleasant dryness of the air. This was changed on the 20th 

 by a thunderstorm from the west, repeating itself from the east after a 

 brief interval with nearly equal force. So violent, however, were the 

 wind and rainfall, that the water was carried off by surface-wash, filling 

 up sewers and cellars and tearing out gutters, but doing harm rather 

 than good to vegetation. The drought was ended, however, as this was 

 followed by a series of easy showers. During October there was much 

 wet and cold weather, the meteorological complexion of the late fall 

 being decidedly unpleasant. 



Now that we are ready to begin the story of our search, what shall 

 we look for ? We have here a circumscribed outbreak of typhoid fever, 

 a disease admittedly of an infectious nature, but proceeding from what 

 kind of infection ? Shall we content ourselves with finding a heap of 

 decomposing vegetable or animal matter, or rest satisfied by discovering 

 an escape of sewer-gas from some untrapped drain into one or more of 

 the houses ? Since we — the reader and I — are scientific and reasonable 

 people, we can not adopt the theory that the disease is contagious — an 

 opinion held by some able but rather easy-going physicians — and hav- 

 ing once effected a lodgment in the community is capable of infecting 

 all who have systems favorable to the development of the poison. The 

 disease is not contagious in the sense that small-pox and scarlet fever 

 are. We have proof in the outbreak we are studying that it is not of 

 such a nature ; but we have further proof. Liebermeister says that he 

 had never seen in the hospitals of Greifswald, Berlin, and Tubingen a 

 single hospital patient, phN'sician, or nurse attacked with typhoid fever, 

 although such cases were placed in the general wards. Dr. Murchison 

 states that during a period of fourteen years 2,506 patients were treated 

 for typhoid fever in the London Fever Hospital, and yet during this 

 long period, and notwithstanding this vast number of patients, only 

 eight cases originated in the hospital. It is needless to cite further 

 evidence, and, since we can not save ourselves hard work by the slip- 

 shod theory of contagion, w^e must explore further. 



Sewer-gas and decomposing matter we can not dismiss in this sum- 

 mary way ; for here we are entering upon the special preserves of 

 boards of health, sanitary engineers, and all others who advocate the 

 gospel of cleanliness. In admitting or excluding sewer-gas as an ele- 

 ment in the spread of the disease, we need a more complete array oi 

 conditions than is furnished by our group of houses ; but such evidence 

 as is wanting we must procure from other sources. A glance at the 

 cut will show that but three houses in the fever-group were connected 



