Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-09-23
ABOUT
TYPHOID
FEVER
Some New Ideas That Night
Shock Woods Hutch. and
the Board of Health

The dispatches report some disagree
mept among doctors with reference to
the case of Baron Komura, the Japa-
neso Peace Envoy, who lies i'll in New
York. One physician who attended
him insists the trouble is Inflammation
Of the gall bladder, but several other
medical men say the baron has typhoid
fever.
Too much certainty cannot be ex-
pected from doctors, for the practise
Of medicine is not an exact science,
and is constantly changing to conform
to new discoveries and increased
knowledge.
At the recent annual conference at
Washington Of representatives of state
and territorial health boards one OF
the subjects discussed was the trans
mission Of typhoid fever. The most
important address on this topic was
that Of Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, OF
Michigan. sole survivor Of the com
mission appointed in 1898 by the Sec
retary of war to investigate the origin
and spread of typhoid in the United
States military camps during the Span
ish war.
Dr. Vaughan said he had formerly
held the view, still commonly enter
tanned by the medical profession, that
nearly all typhoid is transmitted by
drinking water, but he now believed
two.thirds Of tlF cases in military
camps were due to infection by per-
sonal contact He showed that when
camps had been changed the disease
seemed to follow the command, by
companies, regiments and brigades.
Theinfection continued in a certain
regiment until there had been a thor
ough disinfection Of tents, blankets and
personal clothing. He concluded that
typhoid is not only infectious butalso
contagious in the ordinary acceptation
Of the term, and that disinfection is
just as necessary after typhoid as after
scarlet fever or other con.
tagious disease.
1t should be understood, however,
that nothing said by DR.. Vaughan cast
doubt or uncertainty on the fact that
typhoid is a disease originating in the
bowels from swallowing the germ or
germs Of tho disease Sc showed how,
in the military camps, careless hand
ling or carriage Of the excreta Of pa
tients had caused infection Of the
ground, so that germs were carried
from tent 10 tent on the shoes Of the
soldiers, or had infected their food
from soilel hands, or that flies had
carried the germs from excreta 10 the
exposed rations Of the soldiers. II isl
infection Of hands, bedding, towels,
utensils used by the sick, and Of the
ground, the access Of flies TO the
trenches or latrines, and such causes,
that operate to spread typhoid in mill.
tary camps, according TO this investi.
gator,
It is to be borne in mind that DR..
was speaking Of military
camps, not Of towns and cities, in which
the usual source Of typhoid is the
water supply, or milk infected by dilu.
tion with water or by the washing Of
cans with water containing the germs
Of tho disease.
Regarding the diagnosis or medical
recognition Of typhoid, the liability to
error under old methods may be un.
ierstood from the statement Of DR..
Vaughan that a Camp Alger. near
Washington, hundreds Of cases of the
Fever had been regarded as malarial.
and not typhoid, by doctors of skill
aud experience But microscopic ex.
animation Of the blood by an expert,
detailed for the purpose by the sur.
}eon-general, failed TO show the pres.
'nce Of the malarial parasite, while the
Vidal reaction demonstrated the dis.
Ease to be typhoid, in an immense ma.
ority Of cases. The same mistake in
diagnosis occurred in the Seventh Army !
.oFps at Jacksonville, where 200 cases
Which had been treated as malaria
'Foyed to be typhoid, through the APP
'Icatlon Of the same tests.
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