190 MICROBES AND HEALTH. 



Is typhoid fever catching ? A man eats too much or 

 too fast, works too hard or not enough, or indulges in 

 some form of excess ; digestion is interfered with, elimi- 

 nation is checked, degenerative changes follow, the sys- 

 tem becomes saturated with self-generated poisons, vi- 

 tality is lowered, the powers of resistance are reduced 

 to a minimum, the septic blood courses through the 

 body producing irritation and inflammation; disease 

 follows. It may be located in the digestive tract as 

 in typhoid fever, in the lungs as in consumption, in the 

 liver, kidneys, heart, brain or elsewhere. 



Typhoid fever is not catching, but depends upon a 

 long train of the conditions just enumerated. The pa- 

 tient has overstepped the limit of safety and now na- 

 ture is demanding her rights. First, digestion was poor 

 from some cause, the blood contained many impurities, 

 so did the digestive tract, and gradually the system was 

 brought under the influence of putrefactive changes. 

 The nervous system became more or less paralyzed. 

 Sometimes one kind of poison is generated and some- 

 times another, according to the surroundings, kind of 

 food taken, etc., and by reason of the different poisons, 

 it follows that sometimes one organ is affected and 

 sometimes another. 



The same is true with other poisons, strychnine, mor- 

 phine, aconite, etc., used in medicine. First, there is 

 congestion, then inflammation, and if severe enough 

 some cells or tissues die from lack of nourishment, if in 

 the lungs it is consumption, if in the kidneys it is 

 Bright's disease, if in the liver it is liver abscess, if 

 in the digestive tract it may be in Peyer's patches as 



