Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1907-09-25
TYPHOID FEVER

Some Simple Information Con
corning its Cause and Proven
ton, Specially Applicable IL
Country Districts
1t is prevalent idea that ty'
phoid fever is caused by stagnan
water, hog-pens, manure heaps and
| filth of all kinds. These and sucf
like things undoubtedly are excel
lent hotbeds for the cultivation
and multiplication of the cause
and may 80 undermine the gen
eral health and lessen the resist
ing power of the body that those
who live near them. are rendered
more liable to take typhoid fever
or any other disease that may at
tack them, but they no more cause
typhoid fever than stagnant water
causes tadpoles and frogs, hog
pens cause feas, or manure heaps
and fllth cause flies. The cause
of typhoid fever ls germ and the
first germ must be present before
It's species can be reproduced
1t is also a prevalent notion that
typhoid fever can be caught by
coming into the presence of it,
breathing the atmosphere the pa
tient breathes,or inhaling offensive
odOrs.
The germs must be swallowed
before one can take typhoid fever,
and every one who swallows them
does not necessarily have che dis
ease, for his blood may contain a
principle that gives him sufficient
power to resist the attack of the
germs.
After one has swallowed the
germs and he has taken the dis
ease, the germs multiply very
rapidly and are found chiefly in the
bowel but are a lsO foundiu the urine
and the secretions of the mouth.
The secretiOns and eXcretiOns of the
body, therefore, contain millions
of germs and wherever deposited
may produce other centers from
which many more millions may
come.
If the germs must be swallowed
in order to cause the disease, it fol-
lows thet the most frequent
means of conveyance must be the
thing most commonly swallowed,
that lie, water. But germs ere also
conveyed by mems of milk, flies,
handling the patient whose person
or clotbing is solled by the slight
est discharge from the patients
body and by urny other means
which will suggest themselves to
the thoughtful. The water may
be polluted by the patients ex-
cretions having been cast directly
into it, or washed into it by the
rains or by percolaticn through the
earth into q stream which SUPPLIES
spring, and this may occur at
point near by or miles above. TIE
mix may be polluted by water
splashed upon the cows udder as
she wades in infected streams,
transferred to the milKmaid's
hands and thence to the pail and
milk, or by washing the cows
udder and milk vessels with in
fected water. Flies may visit
places where the patients excreta
haze been deposited, lade them
selves with millions of germs and,
returning to tAe house, leave then
ucon the food, glassware, china.
ware, and anything else the h:e,
nay light upon, whence the geimf
may be carried to perscE's
mouth.
Knowing, then, the cause of the
disease, germ, that this germ
must be swallowed, thvt it's home
in the body is chiefly in the feces,
urine and secretlons OF the mouth;
that when these discharges are
deposited in favorable sell the
germs multiply very rapidly; that
they may be swallowed with the
water, milk, food, saliva, no mat
ter how they may gain an entrance
iuto them, it is obvious thet if the
proper precautions were strictly
observed in the very beginning of
the first case there would not be
a second one in any given neigh
borhood, unless it were brought in
from the outside.
Unfortunately, neither the at
tending physician nor the health
auth critics. have control until the
case has made considerable pro-
gress or, it may be, several casee
exist at the same time. But,
though this may be tue, if the
doctor and people have the knowl-
edge indicated above, it is mex
cusable if the fever should |
spread.
Now, what are some of the means
of prevention? In a nutshell ii
may be said to be: kill eli germs
80 far as possible as soon as they
leave the body, permit nc breed
ing places for those that are not
killed and render non dangerous
all means of conveyance of the
germs.
Beginning in the sick room; The