DUST AND DISEASE. 21 



sure does it seem that the contagious matter of epi- 

 demic disease has been sown in the place where it 

 newly appears. With a clearness and conclusiveness not 

 to be surpassed, Dr. William Budd has traced such diseases 

 from place to place ; showing how they plant them- 

 selves, at distinct points, among populations subjected 

 to the same atmospheric influences, just as grains of corn 

 might be carried in the pocket and sown. Hildebrand, 

 to whose remarkable work, ' Du Typhus contagieux,' Dr. 

 de Mussy has directed my attention, gives the following 

 striking case, both of the transport and the durability 

 of the virus of scarlatina : ' Un habit noir que j 'avals en 

 visitant une malade attaquee de scarlatine, et que je 

 portai de Vienne en Podolie, sans I'avoir mis depuis 

 plus d'un an et demi, me communiqua, des que je fus 

 arrive, cette maladie contagieuse, que je repandis ensuite 

 dans cette province, oil elle etait jusqu'alors presque 

 inconnue.' Some years ago Dr. de Mussy himself was 

 summoned to a country house in Surrey, to see a young 

 lady who was suffering from a dropsy, evidently the 

 consequence of scarlatina. The original disease, being 

 of a very mild character, had been quite overlooked ; 

 but circumstances were recorded which could leave no 

 doubt upon the mind as to the nature and cause of the 

 complaint. But then the question arose. How did the 

 young lady catch the scarlatina ? She had come there 

 on a visit two months previously, and it was only after 

 she had been a month in the house that she was taken 

 ill. The housekeeper at length cleared up the mystery. 

 The young lady, on her arrival, had expressed a wish to 

 occupy a room in an isolated tower. Her desire was 

 granted ; and in that room, six months previously, a 

 visitor had been confined with an attack of scarlatina. 

 The room had been swept and whitewashed, but the 

 carpets had been permitted to remain. 



