TYPHUS FEVER 155 



and Scotland. During the ten years following 1 734, 

 and again in 1757 to 1775, the disease prevailed in 

 the track of contending armies over a large part of 

 eastern and central Europe. The last mentioned 

 period includes the time of the Seven Years' War, 

 and of the war between England and Spain. At the 

 end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth centuries typhus was again very prevalent in 

 Europe. Hirsch, in his Handbook of Geographical 

 and Historical Pathology, says with reference to this 

 period : 



" The fourth and by far the severest period of typhus in the 

 eighteenth century occupies the last ten years of it ; it begins 

 with the revolutionary wars on French soil, and ends, in the 

 second decade of the present century, with the final retreat of 

 the French army across the Rhine, the overthrow of the empire 

 of Napoleon, and the restoration of peace." 



Widespread epidemics of typhus in Europe ceased 

 with the ravages attending the wars of Napoleon, 

 with the exception of the years 1846-47 when the 

 disease was somewhat widely diffused. In Ireland 

 and in certain other parts of Europe the disease is 

 apparently endemic, and any unusual period of distress 

 is apt to be followed by an epidemic. In America 

 the disease has prevailed in Mexico from an early 

 date and is said to be endemic in the city of Mexico 

 and other localities in the interior. It has also been 



