TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 161 
country districts where these contagious diseases did not prevail, when 
they became the victims of contagious fevers by mixing with that class 
among whom they were seldom absent. He then considered those 
laws by which contagious fevers were governed : such as, that when 
once the disease had commenced it could not be checked, but must run 
its course ; that at a certain period of the disease it was characterized 
by an eruption upon the skin; that this eruption was diagnostic, and 
that, asa general rule, an individual having once undergone the disease 
was secured against a second attack ; that these laws were as certainly 
applicable to typhus fever, as to any of the other exanthematous fevers. 
These points were illustrated by carefully drawn up statistical tables of 
the patients admitted intothe Fever Hospital under the care of the author. 
These tables show that about 90 per cent. of those admitted had the dia- 
gnostic eruptions ; of the 10 per cent.who had not, 53 per cent. were af- 
fected with diseases chiefly local, which were not typhus ; 25 per cent. 
were admitted at a period when the eruption had disappeared; and in the 
remaining 2 per cent. the eruption was so scanty and evanescent, or the 
skin so brown and dirty, that it could not be detected, though the pa- 
tient had the other symptoms of the disease ; rather less than 2 per cent. 
were stated to have a second attack. Other tables were given of the 
different ages and the comparative mortality at each period, the coun- 
try to which they belonged, showing that the Scotch formed about 
66 per cent., the Irish about 35 per cent., and English and foreign about 
25 per cent. With respect to the mode by which it was communicated 
from one individual to another, he believed it was not communicable 
before the tenth day, and gave a number of cases to show that it was 
always during the convalescent stage that the infection was spread, 
which he supposed was the case with all the exanthematous fevers, by 
the desquamation of the cuticle, as in measles, scarlatina and small-pox ; 
and this he thought accounted for the difficulty of tracing the contagion, 
persons being capable of communicating the disease as long as the de- 
Squamation was going on. He had made some attempts to inoculate 
the disease in young persons by scraping off the cuticular eruption 
with a lancet, but had failed, which he considered would be a desidera- 
tum, as he found the disease in the young mild in character, and at- 
tended with little danger, and was quite satisfied, that could means of 
communicating the disease be accomplished, it would be found as ef- 
fectual in securing the patient against a second attack of typhus, as 
inoculation does against small-pox. The means of preventing the dis- 
ease from spreading, is by isolating the patient during the convalescent 
state, thoroughly washing the body, cleansing the clothes and exposing 
them to a high steam heat; and Dr. Perry recommended the establish. 
ment of Boards of Health in the different cities and counties by the 
Government. 
Notice of the Disease known by the name of Mal d’Aleppe. By Dr. 
Cuartes W. Betz, Physician to H. B: M. Legation in Persia. 
Dr. Bell having had opportunities of observing this curious disease 
during his residence in Persia and Arabia, thought that a notice of 
1840. M 
