Zymotic and Germ Diseases. 261 



accounted for in some instances irrespective of contagion." (Flint. ) It appears from thfc, 

 foregoing that typhoid and typhus fevers are due to one or more zymases or soluble fer- 

 ments which are engendered in dead tissues and excretions of men and other animals. 

 The baccilli micrococci, &c., probably arise from the perversion of tissue cells in the 

 body, and are a consequence of the disease, rather than its cause. 



Mumps or Parotiditis is another of the contagious and infectious 

 diseases, which often, if not generally, appears as an epidemic. It never occurs more 

 than once to the same person. The principal feature of the' disease is usually the inflam- 

 mation and swelling of the parotid salivary glands, just below the ear. Sometimes the 

 swelling also attacks the other salivary glands, the submaxillary and sublingual. In the 

 case of males over the age of puberty, there is one chance in four of the disease being 

 transferred to one of the testes, and then there are four chances in ten that this gland 

 may become atrophied. In females, too, the disease may be transferred to a mammary 

 gland and an ovary. The transfer of this disease to another set of glands is curious and 

 not satisfactorily accounted for. It appears to be due to a ferment which somehow alters 

 certain secretions. 



Whooping CougTi, a familiar, but none the less remarkable disease, 

 is another of the contagious or infectious diseases, which is never known to originate ex- 

 cept by a contagium which very few escape, which very few ever have a second time, but 

 which very seldom destroys life. The disease consists of these essential elements: 1, 

 inflammation of the lining membrane of the bronchial tubes or bronchitis: 2, fever, 

 and 3, an affection of the nervous system which brings on the spasm in coughing and 

 whooping. These three constitute the disease. The disease may last from six weeks to 

 several months, and begins from one to two weeks after exposure to the infection. This 

 infection consists of the emanations of breath and body carried about in the air which 

 probably have the effect of a zymase in the alteration of some secretion of the body. 



Relapsing Fever. This disease is apt to prevail with typhus fever, 

 but is independent of it. Neither disease ever communicates the other, though each is in 

 its own way infectious. In this disease, generally, the spleen is enlarged and softened, due 

 to congestion and hyperplasia (excess of fibrin) of its lymphoid contents (Flint). The 

 liver is enlarged, its tissues becoming degenerated, and the kidneys are swollen. The 

 heart is liable to become degenerated, and granular fatty cells, and white blood corpus- 

 cles are apt to accumulate in the blood. The blood also contains a spiral shaped bacter- 

 ium, called the Spirillum of Obermeier from the discoverer, a physician of Berlin. The 

 parasites occur in no other fluid besides the blood, and in no disease except relapsing 

 fever. They are lively and active during the active stages of the fever, but disappear 

 during the relapses or intermissions. The diameter of the spirillum is about that of the 

 finest fibrils of fibrin, and its length from one and a half to six times the diameter of a 

 red blood corpuscle. Efforts to cultivate the organism artificially have failed. It re- 

 sembles a spiral organism found by Cohn in the mucous of the mouth, another discovered 

 by Elirenbergin water, another found in fluid from noma or aquatic cancer, and still 

 another from a cyst in one of the nasal cavities (the an tram highmorianum ). The at- 

 tack from this disease is sudden and the fever runs high, usually continuing from five to 

 seven days. Then there is a sudden cessation or "relapse" lasting from three to five 

 days generally, then another paroxysm of fever and another relapse of eight or nine days, 

 a third paroxysm of three days, the whole lasting perhaps twenty-five days. The symp- 

 toms are not invariable, but differ in different epidemics of the disease. Some think the 

 disease is caused by the spirillum, and the periods of relapse are its sporing seasons. If 

 that were true, ought not the relapses to be all of the same length to correspond with 

 the time required for the metamorphoses of the organism? The mortality in this disease* 

 considering its fierceness, is low, running from two to eleven per cent, of those affected. 

 It is communicated from the sick to the well. The contagium requires to be concentrated 

 like that of the typhus, in order to insure its communication to others. A single patient 

 in a well ventilated room does not usually give the disease, as a number of patients to- 

 gether in small wards are apt to do. The disease may disappear as it did in London for 

 14 years, then suddenly come on as an epidemic. It goes with famine, destitution, crowd- 

 ing and dirt. It is some times called " famine fever " and " hunger pest." 



Texas Cattle Fever. This is contracted by the Texas cattle along the 

 strip bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and within 300 miles of the gulf. It results from 

 crowding together in a malarious region. The form of the disease is not very violent, as 

 it affects the Texas cattle themselves, but when these are driven north, and come into 

 contact with the northern cattle, they give to the latter a form of the disease that is very 

 fatal. It is communicated only through the dung and urine, which saturating the grass 



