INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND MICROBES, ETC. 225 



base, which has been called typhotoxin (C 7 H 17 N0 2 ), 

 dilates the pupil, produces diarrhoea, and rapidly 

 kills animals. Luff l has also extracted a ptomaine 

 from the urine of typhoid fever patients ; but no 

 formula has been given to this base (i.e. it has not 

 been submitted to quantitative analysis). 



Dr. Lauder Brunton says, in regard to typhoid 

 fever, that 'the symptoms do not point so much 

 to the c formation of a poison affecting the body 

 generally, as to the local action of the microbes 

 upon the intestines, although in some epidemics of 

 typhoid fever the intestinal symptoms are but 

 slightly marked, while bronchial irritation is due 

 to the action of a microbe or to a ptomaine pro- 

 duced by it on the bronchial mucous membrane/ 



CHOLERA. 



Since the great epidemic of 1832, cholera lias 

 had a peculiar fascination for those interested in 

 the subject; for the disease has always been 

 shrouded in mystery until recent times. ' Before 

 the three last epidemics (1865, 1873, 1884) cholera 

 usually came to Europe by what may be called the 

 Continental routes the caravan routes through 

 Persia, Asia Minor, and Russia ; but in the three 

 last it came by the Mediterranean or maritime 

 route, first by land through Egypt, brought there 

 by Mecca pilgrims, and thence to the seaports of 

 France, Italy, and Spain, whence it gradually made 

 its way northward and inland, spreading over the 



1 British Medici Jwmal, 1889, p. 193. 

 P 



