The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-07
TYPHUS TAKES A GRIP.
Is NEW CASES DU aING wEDNEs-
DAY AND 8 AT NIGHT,

Fight it and How to Avoid it When
at Hand.
From the Net0 York Press Jan. 5.
The board Of health did not yesterday
issue circular Of instruction and warning
as to the causes, condition, ETC., of typhus
fsver-for the reason, as tersely put by DR..
Cyrus Edison. that 1.-THE people who are
most liable to typhus do not read"
Then DR.. Edison listened carefully to the
Characterization OF the Russian famine
bred plague: Few diseases are more deadly
when you have sought and found them, buu
many are more liable to seek and find you"
"Yes,n said the doctor. "that is an apt
description Of typhus Nevertheless il is
contagious and infectious. You may catch
it. in short, from a man who sits beside you
in street car. And Its bacillus hos never
been discovered"
Typhus, then, is in other words a coward
who does not know its terrible strength. II
he could conquer his deadly aversion to
| fresh air he would be the most deadly of ell
the enemies to human life. But he loves
the dirt in which he is bred, and once out
of 1t he loses courage and nerve. He may
attack, but without his usual support of
foul emanations and vile stenches his on
slaught is comparatively weak, and may be
beaten of. He has not the faculty for
comprehensive homicide of his erring
southern brother, yellow jack. He will
not pollute the air Of the whole district.
He will Turk in foul corners, and sally out
from them to strike down individuals whose
systems have made ready his indus through
weakness or disease, but will not put a
town to the sword unless that whole town
invites bis coming by preparation In its
households Of coBgenial filth.
PHYSICIANS CANNOT FIND HIM.
This faintheartedness OF his is his one re-
deeminR trait. "His bacillus has never
been discovered" There lies his deadliest
| quality. IL never has been because he is
| the subtlest of prisoners and leaves no trace
| after death. There is something admirable
| in this when you come to look at &c from q
| scientific point Of view. The most malevo-
lent ingenuity Of man can hardly devise to-
| day poison whose traces will escape the
| chemists post norton tests But typhus,
| while 1t breeds three weeks in a human body,
| while 1t spends another three weeks in ex.
! pelling humanity from that body, discloses
| nothing of its secret principle of evil.
| When its work is done, like a clever crimi-
nal, itleaves none Of its tools behind. How
| much more frank and open is cholera with
its open evowel of deadly purpose through
the tests of its bacteria, its candid submits
sion OF its bacilli 70 the photographer and
! calm acceptance of q place and number in
the rogues' gallery of diseases.
You can rub up against cholera without
harm. You have TO eat or drink his bacillus
But the typhus germ you cannot rub up
| against without coming within the range of
his Is per cent. of mortality. So If you hear
q man in street car for instance, say some
thing like this:
SYMPTOMS OF ITS ONSLAUGHT.
"I'vs got funny RASH When I touch it
| IL goes away and leaves a white spot, and
yesterday the top OF my head aehed until
thought 1t would come off," In such q case
flee from such a man as if ne were the pest
He is the pest He has typhus in a COM
municable form.
For period ranging from one to twenty
| one days. but generally not less than nine
| nor more than sixteen, that man has had
| typhus, but has not had IL in a way to make
| him dangerous TO his his neiRhbors. During
the period of incubation the germ-for germ
| there Is, though il modestly remains, incoR.-
is not communicable from person to person,
1 not therefore contagious, nor Through the
media Of air, food or watern and not there.
fore infections. So it Is safe for health
! authorities to let typhus suspects run loose
with legal string tied to them until such
| time as the chill, headache. congested face
and blood vessels OF the eye, and fina lily the
disappearing rash, may be expected to ap-
| pohAs as uAoNcohlus Is any vine
| within three weeks from the date OF ex-
| posture.
When the slow breeding pest has once
fastened its hold on its victim it shows a
| community OF delirium with the rest of the
| fever family. 1t Is hercer madness than
| that OF its endemic uon-contngious second
cousin, typhoid. 1t Is a matter Of scien-
tific record that not all the poteen in the
| green isle will stir the fighting blood of an
| 1rishman like that skulkipg incognito
anonymous spirillum-if it is, as the Ger
mans say, q spirillum-of typhus. 1t 10 q
fact also that yaSkee will be stimulated
into swapping imaginary jack knives by
| the gross by the same occult influence.
| The saddest thing that Dr.
| Edison noticed in his successful
| fight against the disease last year
was that no delirium could stir the down
trodden, spirit-broken Russian Hebrew ex-
lies who brought it here out Of their habit
| of silent suffering. When free men raved
they simply muttered. When others fought
nurses like maniacs they no more than
| tossed on their cots. what centuries of
| oppressionl" was DR., Edson's comment at
she time. what countless deeds of tyranny
for which there is no redress have been
needed to so utterly destroy the free will in
these unfortunates that it may not manifest
| itself even In delirium."
Keep your body well nourished, keep
your house well aired-typhus may need de
novo-avoid the contact of people with
rashes and headaches and you are in no
do ~ n IL. - Norkh Dro4bo-o To1n.I