CHAPTER XLVIII 



THE RELAPSING FEVERS 



General — Louse group : European — North African^ — Indian — Manchurian — 

 Tick group : Tropical African — Persian — American — References. 



GENERAL. 



The relapsing fevers are caused by various species of spirochaetes, 

 and may for purposes of description be arranged partly by their / 

 carrier and partly by their geography as follows:- — 



A. Louse group : — 



1. European relapsing fever. 



2. North African relapsing fever. 



3. Indian relapsing fever. 



4. Manchurian relapsing fever. 



B. Tick group : — 



1. Tropical African relapsing fever. 



2. The tick fever of Miana, Persia. 



3. American relapsing fevers. 



THE RELAPSING FEVER OF EUROPE. 



Synonyms. — English : Recurrent fever, Five Days' fever, Spirillum 

 fever, Five Days' fever with relapses, Typhus Recurrens, Seven Days' fever 

 (not Rogers'), Icteric typhus, Remittent fever, Bilious typhoid, Epidemic 

 remittent fever. Miliary fever. Relapsing fever. French : Fievre a Rechute. 

 Italian : Febbre Ricorrente. German : Riickfallfieber, Die Hungerpeste. 



Definition. — ^An acute specific relapsing fever, caused by Spiro- 

 schaudinnia recurrentis Lebert, 1874, and spread from man to man 

 by lice, Pediculus corporis de Geer, 1778, and by P. humamis 

 Linnaeus, 1758. 



History. — ^Hippocrates was the first writer to describe an epidemic 

 of relapsing fever in Thasos, but this knowledge was entirely lost, 

 and the reference was not understood until after relapsing fever 

 was properly defined. Strother and other observers refer to fevers 

 with relapses in London and in Ireland in the eighteenth century. 

 In 1826-27 there was an epidemic of fever in the United Kingdom, 

 during which it was recognized that there were two distinct types 

 of typhus — viz., a mild and a severe. In 1842 this mild type again 

 appeared in Scotland, and, to a lesser extent, in England, and 

 continued in the years 1843, 1846, and 1847. ^^43 Henderson 



1308 



