928 TYPHOID OE ENTERIC FEVER 



Dr. Morehead's suggestion, which Dr. Murchison thinks * not 

 unreasonable,' as to the superaddition of an infectious to a malarious 

 factor in the formation in such cases as those of the Agra gaol, be 

 accepted, I have to say, in the second place, that it makes my 

 case stronger instead of weaker. For what we know of such com- 

 binations of an ' earth-born ' or ' earth-sown ' — to use Dr. Bryden's 

 expressive synonym for malarious poison — with a personally in- 

 fectious element is based upon experience of two diseases only — 

 typhoid, to wit, and cholera, — and of these two diseases precisely it 

 is known that they spread *by the operation of decomposing 

 excreta.' We suppose the same to be the case with dysentery. But 

 I must say that the supposition of remittent fever becoming in- 

 fectious appears to me to be purely hypothetical, and, as yet at 

 least, far too unsubstantial to carry even the weight of an objection 

 without tottering. 



Boudin, Guyon, and La Boche are quoted by Keith Johnston, 

 in the second edition of the * Physical Atlas of Natural Pheno- 

 mena,' 1856, pi. 35, p. 121, to the effect that 'typhus'* was limited 

 to the northern temperate zone. The date of this work reminds 

 me that in those days it was thought necessary (as by myself in a 

 Report on Smyrna, p. 59) to insist on the reality of the distinction, 

 then a comparatively novel one, between typhus and typhoid 

 fevers ; and I have referred to Keith Johnston's article, not so 

 much for his own or his authorities' opinions as to what they called 

 typhus, as for the sake of quoting his valuable and suggestive, 

 even though not wholly accurate, remark — ' The geographical and 

 climatal limits of typhus in Europe and America will be found to 

 correspond nearly with those of the glutinous Cerealia and potato.^ 

 The organic world, whether pathological or physiological, whether 

 animal or vegetable, must be looked at as a whole. Facility in 

 colligating facts can always be obtained ; the power of detecting 

 their rationale can sometimes be obtained by the employment of 

 this method. I should not, however, accept Keith Johnston's 

 suggestion of this particular geographical phytographical corre- 

 spondence ; a nearer, though still only partially correct, boundary 

 would be obtained by taking the northern limit of the Palmaceae 

 as the southern limit of true typhus ; a botanist who would supply 

 us with a botanical expression for the words 'annual isotherm of 

 68° Fahr.' would very nearly meet the case. 



