The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-22 00:00:00

and gastric' fever, all of which are fevers of a con-
tinued character, as contradistinguished from those
of an intermittent type. These diseases, as they
appear on the Scottish register, account for nearly
one-fifth of what may be termed the zymotic mor-
tality, or rather less than 5 per cent. of the total
number of deaths from all causes. Reviewing these
continued fevers seriatim, we commence with fever
of the inflammatory type. We are told this is far
from being a deadly fever, but it causes great suf-
fering, and the debility arising from it is so lasting
that it makes a working man unfit for labour, from
first to last, during a period of two months. In
Edinburgh this fever is known only as an epidemic,
and, according to the authority to whom we have
thus far alluded, occurs only at periods when work
is scarce, wages low, provisions dear, and the labour-
ing classes consequently in unusual distress. This
disease belongs to the labouring class alone, and is
emphatically the poor man's fever. It is infectious,
but not virulently so, and its contagious properties
may be neutralised by the admission of fresh air.
" Penury pent up in airless dwellings" is stated to
he the condition under which this fever is propa-
gated. As to the most effectual means of extir-
pating this disease, Professor Christison says, "The
favourite panacea of the present day for the pre-
vention of all fevers—thorough drainage, is not the
remedy." A full cupboard and a wide room appear
to constitute the professor's favourite prescription
for this complaint. Next in order we come to that
well-known devastator—typhus ; including typhus
proper, nervous fever, low fever, and putrid fever.
This class of disease appears to be always at work,
but Professor Christison tells us that it assumes the
epidemic form only in times of distress. It spreads
by infection, but the infection is not intense, being
preventible by the adoption of the ventilating pro-
cess. So far it seems to observe much the same
conditions as inflammatory fever. But it differs in
the fact that it is not entirely absent during its non-
epidemic periods; it a!so differs in another fact—
namely, that it not merely produces sickness, but
also death, being generally fatal one case out of ten.
It has also the peculiarity of attacking the rich
pretty equally with the poor during its non-
epidemic periods, whereas its ravages while raging
as an epidemic principally affect the comparatively
destitute. As to the origin of typhus, Professor
Christison asserts that, as a general rule, it does not
originate in faulty drainage or foul air. This he
declares confidently, so far as Edinburgh is con-
cerned, and appeals to the result of certain inluiries
which he has made on this point, from which it ap-
pears that typhus began to decline in Edinburgh
before the commencement of the improved drainage,
and after it had been a perpetual pestilence in that
city for a third of a century. So greatly has typhus
diminished in the Edinburgh bills of mortality dur-
ing the last few years that there even seems some
probability of its total extirpation from that city.
As for the cause of so marked a sanitary im-
provement, Professor Christison says "it has
certainly not yet been found out." He gives us,
indeed, a hint on this head, and that not a very con-
solatory one. He says, "My own strong convic-
tion is, that the secret will be found to be connected
with the theory which has been much canvassed in
the present day—the successive changes of type
or constitution of epidemic diseases." So that
typhus may merely be giving place to some other
malady. Further statistics might test this theory,
out Professor Christison's address does not appear
to furnish data for the purpose. Finally, how-
ever, we touch solid ground, by being told that
professional experience agrees in one distinct con-
clusion—that typhus never can prevail in the
epidemic form in the face of employment for the
working classes and ventilation of their dwellings.
Thus we come to the same remedial measures as in
the case of inflammatory fever—a full cupboard and
a wide room. Gastric fever we need not dwell
apon. It appears to be the rich man's fever, and
results from over-excitement, physical or mental.
With enteric (bowel) fever, the case is very diffe-
rent. It is of the typhoid class, and is the most
deadly of all forms of continued fever. Modern ob-
servation recognises it in Germany in 1763, in
France in 1812 i
, in London in 1827, and in Edin-
burgh about fifteen years ago. It appears to be
an increasing scourge everywhere, and for this
very reason Professor Christison considersit can-
not have its origin in defective sanitary arrange-
ments, seeing that sanitary measures are being
adopted to an increasing extent throughout the
kingdom, at least so far as drainage, ventilation,
and cleanliness are concerned. It also appears to
affect the best regulated localities as well as the
worst. Bat our professor admits this much—that
foul air " favours the invasion" of this species of
fever, and that " we shall do well to encourage
better drains, more and better water-closets, and
better ventilation of dwellings."