532 
SEDGWICK AND WINSLOW. 
BACILLUS OF TYPHOID FEVER. 
water-supplies, he was asked why the maximum of typhoid occurred in autumn 
instead tjfat the time of the i^rcatest floods, and his reply Was as follows: — 
1 
** You were speaking Just now of the conditions under which the typhoid bacillus develops, 
and you were speaking of it as being a pathogenic organism^ and therefore as not compethig on 
equtil terms with the saprophytic organisms ; and here tlie matter of temperature alone plays 
swh a \ery important part that it cannot be left out of consideration. Although you liave in 
February the highest point of floods, you have the temperature so low that the typhoid bacillus 
could Bcarccly develop under any conditions, whereas when you come to August, wlien the 
temj)eralure i9 much nearer that of the body, that is, the temperature under wliich tlietyphoid 
bacillus can exist, then the conditions become so much more favorable that the organism can 
live more readily, more easily, and become more virulent outside the body than it can when the 
temperature is put very much lower, and, therefore, although at flood times the highest flood 
points one would expect (if yon leave out the temperature) the typhoid bacillus to do the greatest 
amount of damage, still the temperature is so low that the presence of the bacillus is practically 
■ 
a matter of no importance at that period, and it is only when you get to the flood periods when 
tlie temperature is higher that you can take these statistics as bearing on the point. But beyond 
this, should there be a sporadic case of typlioid due to the use of contaminated water, the conditions 
for the propagation of tlie disease are not nearly so favorable during the cold months of February 
as they are in tlie hotter months of the year, and therefore the health returns and the tables 
would be much less affected, not only at the time of the primary outbreak but for some little time 
afterwards.'* 
Plausible 
the 
gained 
isions of Murchison, Davidson, and Woodhead appear, they 
ptance, and in Germany have been utterly ignored, except 
by Liebermeister in the passage quoted ab 
I 
lime year that his 
appeared, Oestcrlen ^"^> published some figures on the quarterly prevalence of typhoid 
: " That temperature exerts no, or at least a very 
as gn^en 
helow. and 
d 
secondary, influence, is obv 
between 
from the 
y sm 
diffe 
which often appe 
arise 
heat. 
»» 
n the different seasons, and from the circumstance that typhoid epidemics may 
nd culminate at the extremes of temperature, in great cold as well as great 
Quarterly Prevalence of Typhoid 
After Oesterlen 
Place. 
Geueva . . 
London . , 
Kassau . . 
Massachusetts 
Lowell . . 
Period 
Berlin (average monthly deaths) . 
1849-53 
1818-56 
1 845-49 
1840-17 
18:]0-38 
"Winter. 
Spring. 
Summer. 
180 
109 
105 
2813 
2527 
2916 
670 
470 
486 
429 
259 
528 
130 
102 
163 
27 
18 
23 
Autumn 
o 
O 
203 
305 
863 
1132 
250 
41 
