TYPHUS FEVER 157 



The influence of insanitary conditions in favouring 

 the epidemic extension of typhus is generally admitted. 

 This is so well stated by Hirsch that I cannot refrain 

 from again quoting from this trustworthy author : 



" It is always and everywhere the wretched conditions of liv- 

 ing, which spring from poverty and are fostered by ignorance, 

 laziness, helplessness, in which typhus takes root and finds 

 nourishment ; and it is above all in want of cleanliness, and in the 

 overcrowding of dwellings, that are ventilated badly or not at all, and 

 are tainted with corrupt effluvia of every kind. The prototype of 

 these conditions is found in Ireland, which is the greatest sufferer 

 from this disease." 



The same conditions as to overcrowding, want of 

 ventilation, and insanitary surroundings have been 

 the determining factors in the development of epi- 

 demics in prisons, on shipboard (" ship-fever "), and 

 among colonies of workmen brought together to pro- 

 secute great engineering enterprises (canals, railways, 

 etc.), and not provided with proper quarters. When 

 poorly housed and left to their own resources, labourers 

 or soldiers will inevitably develop insanitary conditions 

 in and around the barracks, huts, or tents occupied by 

 them, and some pestilential malady will just as inevit- 

 ably obtain a foothold among them, with more or less 

 disastrous consequences. 



The germ of typhus fever has not been discovered, 

 but it is an eruptive fever in which, as in smallpox, 

 the infectious agent is probably given off from the 



