1894-] LATTIMORE EPIDEMIC OF TYPHOID FEVER. 27 1 



questions sprang simultaneously from every lip : — Whence came this 

 pestilence ? When will it cease ? What can be done ? And there 

 was no answer. 



Of this epidemic I have been asked to give the Academy of 

 Science a brief account. I have accepted the invitation with hesita- 

 tion because I am well aware that any account I can give you will be 

 more or less imperfect from the lack of some, and possibly many, of 

 the data essential to a complete history. And yet it seems to me that 

 a study of this case, even in its broader outlines may be useful, not 

 because it has contributed any new facts to sanitary science, but 

 because it powerfully emphasizes the importance of putting to prac- 

 tical use the knowledge we already possess. 



The study of an epidemic is usually involved in great difficulty. 

 When it attracts the attention, it is often too late to ascertain the 

 causes and conditions from which it sprang ; they have either ceased 

 or changed, leaving no certain trace, and relegating us to conjecture 

 and inference. When, as in this case, it is possible to trace the 

 causes to their natural results, and make out a complete history of 

 the epidemic from its beginning to its end, it constitutes a most 

 important contribution to sanitary science, as it shows us the true 

 means of prevention, which is the great object to be sought. 



Epidemics have been noticed in history ever since history began 

 to be written, but never seriously and scientifically studied until very 

 recently. In former ages people cowered in helpless and hopeless 

 terror before the pestilence. It walked in darkness, there was no 

 search light to turn upon it. It was the unapproachable mystery, the 

 embodiment of divine, omnipotent and indiscriminate fury. What a 

 change has taken place ! Does cholera break out in India, the 

 leading nations of the world dispatch their most learned and intrepid 

 scientists to study it where it rages most violently. Does yellow 

 fever, the terrible legacy left to the white race by the African slave 

 trade, rage in tropical ports, thither flock the heroic students to 

 study its causes and its nature. On the discoveries thus made must 

 be based all intelligent means of prevention by disinfection and 

 quarantine. 



Thus it is that sanitary science is pre-eminently a cooperative 

 product. It is the final result of many distinct but contributing 

 sciences. Singularly, too, it is largely the direct outcome of calamity 

 and disaster. The sanitary legislation of England, beginning only forty 

 years ago, which has already so largely blessed the entire civilized world, 

 found its incentive in the Crimean war. The sanitary movement in 



