464 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but they are mingled with discharges which may be removed, and as 

 matter of course are removed, before the germs can pass off from them 

 into the surrounding atmosphere. The seat of the propagation of the 

 typhoid-poison has no direct relation with this atmosphere ; germs 

 can not pass directly from the one to the other ; the disease, therefore, 

 does not display the property of contagiousness. 



The danger in typhoid fever is not contact with the person of the 

 sufferer, but contact with his stools. If these are properly managed 

 and disposed of, the disease can scarcely spread. But, if they are 

 allowed to pass into drains which are imperfectly trapped, inadequately 

 ventilated, or insufficiently flushed, or if they are carelessly thrown 

 on the ground, or allowed to percolate through the soil into drinking- 

 water, then one case of typhoid fever may give rise to many others. 

 The occurrence of a case of typhoid fever in a house is a sharp test of 

 the efficiency of its sanitary arrangements. If these are perfect, and 

 the stools properly managed, all will go well ; if they are defective, 

 one case may give rise to many others. But the communication of the 

 disease is not direct, by contact ; it is indirect, by infection of drinking- 

 water, or of an atmosphere which may be remote from the person who 

 is the source of the poison. A case of typhoid fever is introduced 

 into a locality. The stools are thrown out on the ground or into a 

 cesspool, whence they percolate through the soil into a well. The 

 person who drinks water from that well runs a greater risk than one 

 who sleeps in the same room as the sufferer and is in constant attend- 

 ance on him. 



The practical outcome of all this is — 1. That the mother may nurse 

 her son, the wife her husband, the sister her brother, without the risk 

 involved in the case of typhus or scarlet fever ; and, 2. That there is 

 little or no danger to the other inmates of the house, if its sanitary ar- 

 rangements are perfect and the stools properly managed. 



On this view of the nature and mode of action of contagion, it is 

 easy to see, not only how the process of contagion and its varying 

 phenomena may be explained, but how, by care, much may be done 

 both to prevent the poison from passing into the atmosphere and to 

 diminish its chance of acting after it has got there. We have only 

 to consider what is the chief channel by which the contagion gets exit 

 from the system, to know by w^hat means we are most likely to pre- 

 vent its passing into the surrounding atmosphere. In typhoid fever 

 the poison passes off in the stools ; and what we have to do is to see 

 that these are promptly and properly disinfected and disposed of. In 

 small-pox, scarlet fever, typhus fever, and measles, it is eliminated by 

 the skin, and we can not altogether prevent its getting into the atmos- 

 phere ; but, by frequent sponging with some disinfecting fluid, or even 

 with plain water, many germs may be arrested in their outward course. 



The apostolic mode of anointing with oil is also an efficacious way 

 of fixing and arresting the germs : it is specially useful during conva- 



