396 



When a great number of persons, born in a 

 cold climate, arrive at the same time in a port 

 of the torrid zone, not particularly dreaded by 

 navigators, the typhus of America begins to 

 appear. Those persons have not had the typhus 

 during their passage ; it manifests itself among 

 them only on the very spot. Is the atmospheric 

 constitution changed ? or does a new form of 

 disease display itself among individuals, whose 

 irritability is highly increased ? 



The typhus soon begins to exert it's ravages 

 among other Europeans, born in more southern 

 countries. If it propagate itself by contagion, 

 it seems surprising, that in the towns of the 

 equinoctial continent it does not attach itself 

 to certain streets ; and that immediate contact * 

 does not augment the danger, any more than 

 seclusion diminishes it. The sick, when re- 

 moved to the inland country, and especially to 

 cooler and more elevated spots, to Xalapa, for 

 instance, do not communicate the typhus to 

 the inhabitants of those places, either because 



* In the oriental plague (another typhus characterized 

 by a great disorder in the lymphatic system) immediate 

 contact is less to be feared than is generally thought. Mr. 

 Larrey asserts, that the tumefied glands may be touched, 

 or cauterized, without danger ; but he thinks we ought not 

 to risk putting on the clothes of persons attacked with the 

 plague. M4m. sur les Maladies de VArmie Francoise en Egypte, 

 p. 35. 



