INFECTIOUS DISEASES 425 



dressings (p. 400). Soldiers in time of war often die as 

 the result of inflammation in their wounds, but in the 

 great war between Japan and Russia few Japanese died 

 from this cause, for each soldier carried a case of dress- 

 ings and was taught how to apply the dressing at once 

 after receiving a wound. 



738. Intestinal diseases. Several kinds of disease germs 

 may grow in the intestine. The intestine increases its 

 peristalsis (p. 85) in an attempt to expel the toxins, and 

 thus the germs are the cause of abdominal pains, and 

 stomach aches, and dysentery. 



Babies often suffer greatly from intestinal diseases, for 

 in them the toxins of disease germs are absorbed more 

 readily than in grown persons. The germs of intestinal 

 diseases usually enter the body with impure water or 

 spoiled food, or are deposited on the food by house flies 

 which come into our kitchens from filthy garbage heaps. 

 Intestinal diseases may be suppressed by attention to the 

 purity of drinking water and food, and by the extermi- 

 nation of house flies (p. 411). Owing to increased knowl- 

 edge in the care of milk, the amount of intestinal diseases 

 among babies has been greatly lessened (p. 1 10). 



739. Typhoid fever. One of the most serious forms of sick- 

 ness which is caused by impurities in drinking water and food is typhoid 

 fever. The disease is like a severe and prolonged dysentery, and is the 

 cause of thousands of deaths each year. 



We take typhoid fever only by swallowing the germs which have 

 grown in the intestine of a sick person. The germs are given off in 

 the discharges from the body of any one who has the disease. They 

 may remain alive in garbage heaps and slops and sewage, and so may 

 reach our drinking water, or be carried to our food by house flies. 

 They may also be deposited on dishes or milk cans which have been 

 washed in impure water. 



Typhoid fever may be prevented by proper sewage disposal and the 



