TYPHUS FEVER 101 



Debtors were thrown into prison where some remained for years 

 and if they had any comforts in the prison they had to pay for them. 

 Jailors grew rich out of the necessities of their wards. Those unable 

 to pay were crowded into unbelievably small quarters. The first com- 

 mission to inquire into these abuses reported: 



George's ward, sixteen feet by fourteen and about eight feet high, had 

 never less than thirty-two in it all last year and sometimes forty; there was no 

 room for all to lie down, one-half the number sleeping over the others in ham- 

 mocks ; they were locked in from 9 p. m. to 5 a. m. in summer, longer in winter, 

 and as they were forced to ease nature within the room, the stench was 

 noisome beyond expression. 



It is a matter of common knowledge that the work of prison reform 

 in England at the time of which we write was due largely to the efforts 

 of John Howard and his work was begun in 1773. 



While the great land owners accumulated wealth, the poacher who 

 snared a rabbit was sent to jail or deported. The condition of the poor 

 was hopeless and the best blood of England flowed willingly or unwill- 

 ingly into the United States, Canada and Australia. However, typhus 

 often pursued the poor emigrant in his flight by sea and it is said that 

 one-third the immigrants to America in the eighteenth century died 

 during or soon after the voyage. It is well known that the fatality 

 from ship fever continued through the early part of the nineteenth 

 century. During the American War (1774-1780) the number of 

 British seamen raised was 175,990, the number of those who died of 

 disease was 18,545, and the number killed was 1,243. 



It is interesting to 'note that during the eighteenth century English 

 physicians for the most part were not much concerned with the poor 

 and many of them saw but little typhus, while a colleague busy among 

 the poor saw much of it. A Dr. Moss, writing of diseases in Liver- 

 pool, said that typhus was rare at a time when Dr. Currie was seeing 

 more than 3,000 cases a year. In 1790 Liverpool was the second city 

 in England with a population of 56,000, while that of London was 

 estimated at 800,000. According to Currie 7,000 of the people of 

 Liverpool lived in cellars and 9,000 more in back houses with small 

 courts and with narrow passages to the streets. In ten years (1787- 

 1796) 31,243 cases of fever were registered, an average of 3,124 per 

 year. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century Chester was 



