96 TYPHUS FEVER 



Per omnes 



Burgundos et quas stagnans Arar irrigat urbes 

 Insolita exarsit febris, quae corpora rubris 

 Inficiens maculis (triste et mirabile dictu) 

 Quarta luce frequens fato pendebat acerbo. 

 Pulsus erat minimus, tremulusque soporque 

 Mens vaga, visque labens; totium crassemque rubensque 

 Interdum tenuae instar aquae. 



In 1658, Morton states that England was one vast hospital filled 

 with the victims of a fever with "maculae latae et rubicundae morbillis 

 similes in toto corpore." The great plague of London (1665) was 

 preceded, accompanied, and followed by typhus and some of the most 

 eminent medical men of the time, notably Sydenham, frequently con- 

 founded plague and typhus in the reports of their cases. Under the 

 title, "Febris Petechialis vera" Hoffmann of Halle (1700) gave an 

 excellent account of typhus and pointed out its distinction from the 

 plague, which he designated "Febris Pestilens." The eighteenth cen- 

 tury saw no abatement of epidemics of typhus. This disease had long 

 afflicted Ireland under the name of "Irish ague," but it was not until 

 1708 that permanent records of its ravages were made. From that 

 time on for more than a century and a half Ireland was afflicted by one 

 epidemic after another, just as fast as new generations supplied a crop 

 of susceptible material. The historian has no difficulty in showing that 

 each exacerbation was coincident with a period of great want and 

 poverty, but this was a chronic condition of the Emerald Isle during 

 this period. The people were oppressed by their rulers, divided among 

 themselves, held in the grossest ignorance and fed on superstition. 

 Most of those who had enough energy emigrated to foreign lands, 

 thus impoverishing their native land of its best blood to such an extent 

 that it has not yet wholly recovered. An account of one epidemic of 

 typhus in Ireland is much like all others. Nothing to eat but potatoes ; 

 and an adult would devour ten or more pounds of these tubers each 

 day in the vain attempt to supply his body cells with the minimum 

 amount of protein demanded. Driven by hunger to sell the cow, fur- 

 niture, and even his clothing, the Irishman and his family huddled 

 together in rags and filth, while vermin fed on their bodies and simul- 

 taneously inoculated them with typhus. Murchison says : "In Dublin, 



