CHAPTER VI 



TYPHUS FEVER 



T^YPHUS fever, also known as "spotted fever," 

 " ship-fever," etc., is an infectious disease which 

 has doubtless prevailed in Europe for many centuries, 

 although no definite account of a disease which can 

 be identified with typhus is known of an earlier date 

 than the eleventh century. It was not, however, until 

 the sixteenth century that the disease was described 

 in a tolerably satisfactory manner by the Italian 

 physicians (1505 to 1530). Epidemics of typhus have 

 frequently been associated with the devastations of 

 war and the scarcity of food resulting from such de- 

 vastations ; or from failure of crops, which is one of 

 the principal predisposing causes of the disease. 



During the eighteenth century the disease prevailed 

 extensively in the various countries of Europe and 

 especially in England, in which country three severe 

 epidemics occurred. In two of these (1718-21 and 

 i 728-31) the disease was widely prevalent in England 



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