CHAPTER V. 



COMMON COMMUNICABLE DISEASES. 



In former years communicable diseases were 

 spoken of as either contagious or infectious and ^^'""^ 

 diseases. The term contagious was applied to In^ecti°"s. 

 those diseases which are transmitted by direct 

 contact or inoculation; infectious to those 

 which are either air or water borne. It has 

 been developed by experience that many of 

 the diseases which were called infectious can 

 also be transmitted by contact or inoculation 

 and also that those diseases termed contagious 

 are sometimes air or water borne, hence the 

 apparent necessity for the change to the term 

 communicable which is used to cover all dis- 

 eases that may be transmitted or communicated 

 from a sick to a well person without refer- 

 ence to the method of transmission or com- 

 munication. 



Among the communicable diseases commonly communicable 

 met with by the nurse we will first mention Diseases. 



Typhoid Fever. The invading micro- 

 organism in this disease is the bacillus typhosus, .j 

 discovered by Eberth and Koch and sometimes Typhosus, 

 called Eberth's bacillus in honor of one of its 

 discoverers.* The seat of invasion in typhoid 

 fever is the small intestine in the lower part of 



* See history, Chapt. I, page 19. 

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