TYPHUS FEVER 119 



infected lice had an uninterrupted march from 

 one end of the place to the other, and the men 

 came down by scores. And so in the course of a 

 month the disease had spread throughout the 

 country, adding a supreme misery to already 

 unbearable conditions." Owing to the im- 

 possibility at the first rapid spread of the epi- 

 demic of making any arrangements for the 

 disinfestation of the patients admitted to the 

 hospitals a sad proportion of the medical and 

 nursing staff became sufferers from the disease, 

 and 200 of the 1200 medical officers in the 

 country died from typhus. The authors above 

 mentioned pay tribute to the devotion of those 

 whose duties took them amongst the sick, while 

 the Queen went in and out of the wards regard- 

 less of the grave risk. Though the warmer 

 weather of early summer made life a little more 

 bearable for the suffering people, and prevented 

 the peasants from herding together so much, 

 thus, together with active measures against the 

 lice, reducing the violence of the plague, it did 

 not entirely cause its disappearance. Sporadic 

 cases continued to occur here and there through- 

 out Moldavia, and it is probable that typhus 

 for a time will be endemic in the country, since 

 the Roumanians are an agricultural people with 

 the habits of peasants and, though not averse 

 to cleanliness, will probably have a difficulty 

 in eradicating the large increase in lice which 

 these terrible times produced. 



