The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-02-05
TYPHUS FEVER.
There Is Little Danger of Its Spreading
Beyond New York City.
Especial Correspoadcncel

Especial correspondence.
NEWARK, n. r., Jan. 1.-THE eagerncss
with which newspaper readers have fol-
lowed the accounts of the typhus fever
epidemic in New York makes it likely that
few words about what typhus is may be
interesting at this time
The word typhus is Greek, meaning mist
or smoke, and refers to the stupor which
overcomeS patients attacked by the disease
The other namcs-ship fever, Jail fever
hospital fever, etc.-rcfcr to the fact that the
disease almost always appears in places that
are overcrowded, and especially where pow
erty, filth and bad surroundings prevail
So we notice that the present epidemic has
been confined mostly to the cheap lodging
houses on the east side of the city and to
the tribe of "the great unwashed" that oc-
cupcs them.
Typhus is highly contagious continual
fever which lasts about fourteen days, and
is characterized by great prostration, Sc
we're nervous symptoms and peculiar crup-
ton on the skin. The contagion is commu-
nicatcd by eXhalations given off from the
bodies of the sick directly to those in at
tendance upon them or occupying the same
room, and is taken into the system by
means of the air breathcd into the lungs In
this respect typhus differs from typhoid,
which is not contagious, but is communi-
Gated for the most part through drinking
water which has been contaminated by
drainppes and cesspools.
Typhus also differs from typhoid in the
manner of it's onset, which is sudden, while
that of typhoid is slow and insidious. In
typhus also there is n much more profound
exhaustion and muscular prostration. The
nervous symptoms too-headachc delirium
and the like-are far more intense than in
typhoid. The fever in typhus reaches its
highest point at the end of the second dny;
i'll typhoid, not until the end of the first
week. The eruption of typhus appears
more or less over the whole body; that of
typhoid mostly upon the abdomen The
special characteristic of typhoid is an ulcer
alton of the bowels. This does not exist mt
all in typhus.
The most important factor for the treat
ment and prevention of the spread of typhus
Is fresh air, which has the power to neutral
lze the poison. A typhus patient who was
apparently overwhelmed with the disease,
when brought from crowded tenement
house and placed in tent where he could
inhale plenty OF fresh air, has been known
to rally within four or five hours Again,
place such n patient in tent where an
abundance of fresh air can circulate about
him, and it is almost impossible for him to
communicate the disease to another.
IypnuS epldemlcS are much less preva-
lent than In former years, owing to the i'm
proved sanitary condition of our large
cities. Even after the disease has made
considerable progress the health authorities
are so prompt in removing the cases rs soon
as discovered and quarantining houses
where they have occurred, that there is
very little danger of its spreading to any
extent
stricter enforcement Of the laws rel,-
lating the number of people TO be accom-
modatcd in lodging houses would lessen
the chances the disease even now has of OBJ
tanning a foothold
JOSEPH M. WOODRUFF, NJ d.