TYPHOID 221 



Evil," this latter name being due to the superstition 

 that if the sufferer from scrofula could get the king to 

 touch him he would be miraculously cured. The organ- 

 isms of tuberculosis are very likely to be present in the 

 air, as a part of the dust, since every sufferer from pul- 

 monary tuberculosis expels great numbers every time he 

 expectorates. In the more common forms of tuberculosis 

 the poison produced by the organisms is either mild or is 

 in small quantities, so that the actual poisoning is 

 gradual and the patient passes through a long period of 

 slow decline. In pulmonary tuberculosis the impairment 

 of health is due, in considerable part, to the interference 

 with respiration which results from the destruction of 

 lung tissue by the growth of the tubercle bacilli in the 

 lungs. Occasional infections of tuberculosis are seen in 

 which the organisms are highly virulent, and the disease 

 runs a rapid course to a fatal termination. Very many 

 lives have been saved since the discovery that sunshine 

 and air free from dust, and abundant and nourishing food 

 are sufficient, in combination, to cure ordinary tuberculo- 

 sis, provided early diagnosis is obtained. 



Typhoid is due to the typhoid bacillus which is present 

 in vast numbers in the intestines of every sufferer from 

 the disease, and sometimes in the intestines of well per- 

 sons who are known as " typhoid carriers." If the excreta 

 of these individuals find their way into drinking water or 

 into milk, the organisms present in the water or milk 

 will remain alive for a considerable period of time, so that 

 persons drinking the contaminated fluids -introduce the 

 organisms into their intestinal tracts. From there, the 

 typhoid germs make their way into some of the cells of 

 the mucous membrane lining the intestine, and by 

 growth and multiplication become very numerous. 

 Each one produces some poison which stays within it 

 so long as it is alive, but when it dies the poison is set 

 free to be conveyed about the body in the blood and 

 to do injury. 



