Method of 
Communication 
Uncertain. 
Impure 
Water and 
Mosquitoes. 
Prevention. 
Cause. 
BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL. 
carried from the sick to the well by the bite of 
insects, although the actual method has not been 
fully determined. An epidemic of relapsing 
fever occurred in New York and Philadelphia in 
1869. It is not a common disease in recent years, 
and epidemics unheard of, owing to improved 
sanitary conditions. 
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 ali¬ 
mentary canal in impure drinking water. Mos¬ 
quitoes are believed by some authorities to cause J 
a spread of the disease by the inoculation of their 
victims with the blood of diseased persons. The 
seat of the disease is the deeper lymphatics. v 
Prominent symptoms are chyle in the urine, 
oedema of the skin (swelling due to effusion into 
connective tissue), and hypertrophy (morbid en¬ 
largement) of the cellular tissues, known as “ele¬ 
phantiasis.” 
Prevention consists in removing the sources 
whereby drinking water is contaminated and in 
destroying the mosquito. 
Yellow Fever. While yellow fever is not a 
disease commonly met with by the nurse in this 
part of the country, we will speak of it briefly in 
this connection. It is a disease which is very 
rapidly spread by means of a species of mosquito, 
the stegomia fasciata. These insects transmit 
the germs by direct inoculation of blood from the 
sick to the well. The disease is not air borne, 
nor is it carried in clothing, books or other such 
articles. The mosquitoes must be destroyed in 
order to prevent the spread of the disease. 
In the Southern States and in Mexico, where 
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