180 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



value. Their private interest prompting thorn 

 thus to dispose of the sick animals as fast as 

 they could, the majority of the tainted beasts 

 were sold and eaten in the second stage or 

 period of the typhus. 



No\v, if the flesh of these diseased animals 

 had been eaten raw, accidents most terrible 

 and appalling would certainly have been the 

 consequence, although dogs may have fed upon 

 it without injury. But the cooking of animal 

 flesh at 100 degrees of heat has the property 

 of destroying for a time the septic germs, as 

 the famous debates now being held by the ex- 

 perimentalists who are studying the subject of 

 spontaneous generation tend to show. This 

 poisonous meat, therefore, may at first have 

 been digested without producing immediate ill 

 effects. 



Our medical practice, however, authorizes us 

 to declare that, after making every allowance 

 for the influences of this extraordinarily hot 

 summer, digestive and nervous complaints of 

 the acutest description, and without any special 

 cause to account for them, have been very nu- 

 merous indeed during the last two months, 

 and beyond all proportion greater than they 



