COMMON COMMUNICABLE DISEASES. 



under any consideration. Heart failure, is 

 perhaps, a point especially to be impressed upon 

 the nurse, as any sudden exertion or excitement 

 on the part of the patient may bring about the 

 dread calamity. One attack of pneumonia in- 

 stead of affording immunity, seems to predis- 

 pose to other attacks. 



Relapsing Fever. The micro-organism ^, . . 

 which causes relapsing fever, discovered by ge'^""^ 

 Obermeier in 1873, is termed Spirocheta 

 Obermeieri. Scientists are of the opinion that 

 the disease is carried from the sick to the well 

 by the bite of insects, although the actual jjgthod of 

 method has not been fully determined. An Communication 

 epidemic of relapsing fever occurred in New 

 York and Philadelphia in 1869. It is not a 

 common disease in recent years, and epidemics 

 imheard of, owing to improved sanitary con- 

 ditions. 



Filariasis is a disease due to the filiaria san- 

 guinis hominis, a small worm-like parasite. It 

 is admitted to the body, usually, through the 

 alimentary canal in impure drinking water. wSer^nd 

 Mosquitoes are believed by some authorities to Mosquitoes, 

 cause a spread of the disease by the inoculation 

 of their victims with the blood of diseased per- 

 sons. The seat of the disease is the deeper 

 lympathics. Prominent symptoms are chyle 

 in the urine, oedema of the skin (swelling due 

 to effusion into connective tissue), and hyper- 

 99 



