924 



DISEASES CAUSED BY FILTRABLE VIRUS 



rnon all over the world and not apparently influenced by climatic 

 conditions. 



When it appears first among aboriginal populations, it sweeps 

 through them with a violence unknown among more civilized nations 

 with whom the disease has been endemic ,for centuries. Such was 

 the great epidemic in the Fiji Islands in 1874, and similar epidemics 

 have occurred in the South Sea Islands and among American Indians 

 and the negro races. The disease occurs more commonly in cities than 

 in rural districts. 



Susceptibility of previously uninfected individuals seems to be 

 practically universal. Interesting in this connection are the statistics 

 of concentration camps in the United States during the recent war 

 such as those of Vaughan and Palmer 6 made at Camp Wheeler. The 

 population of this camp, like that of many others, was made up of 

 young men from rural communities, many of whom had not had 

 measles before. The sick rate week by week which followed the 

 onset of the epidemic is tabulated by Vaughan and Palmer as 

 follows : 



We may assume that the definite exposure to measles of an unin- 

 fected human being will almost invariably result in an attack. 



Since the disease is probably communicated by the secretions of 

 the nose and throat, reasonable exposure may be taken to imply 

 crowding in sleeping quarters, contact in public vehicles, places of 

 amusement, at meals, at play, in schools and in the ordinary indoor 

 association of work and recreation. Whether or not the disease can 

 be conveyed indirectly to any degree is not certain, but it is very 



'Vaughan and Palmer, Jonr. Lab. and Clin. Med., 4, 1919, 647. 



