The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-12-23
TYPHOID IS CAUSE
OF MANY DEATHS
Experts Declare Disease Is to Be
Dreaded More Than
Smallpox.
Especial to The Times Dispatch. ]

II.
washington. December 22.---Just at
this season of the year. when 1t is
more agreeable to think of holly and
t m,siaeIoe and md, the tinkIins of tho
snow than to ponder seriously over
microbes, bacilli and the thousand and
one other forms of Understanding
Parasites to which human man Is heir.
But when such men as Logan Wallor
page. John II. Mohler and Erwin II.
T h.; al experts in the United States
D,apartment OF Agriculture. hoist the
Danger signal, 1t is time to take no
tlcc, lest the spirit or levity which now
prevails over the land make us lose
signt or many phases of Importance in
Telling the bad news quickly. these
experts say typhoid fever is {; com
niunicable disease more to be dreaded
on the whole than smallpox. because
at present in countries which practice
vaccination smallpox Is disease
which occurs only occasionally. and
Is soon stamped out, whereas typhoid
fever prevails widely In all civilized
countries. attacking by preference the
young and middlc-agcd. and causes not
only many deaths every year, bit
e great economic losses. Serious I'm
phlrhcnt OF the heart and other or
Sans may persist after recovery In
recent years the subject has been
Drought nome in worry emphatic man
ner.
THE disease is not contagious In
the ordinary sense of the word. /, G.
IS not usually spread from person
-. 81. peIson by touch, az In the case OF
nurses seldom contract tha 49,
generally 1t is attributed indirect1S
t ba person who contracts the disease
OF ' tha ~ some way swallowed some
III, w germs from a previous casa
The disease is now seneraiiy beIicv-
Gu 20 PC Que TO u schizomyccte known
as bacillus typhosus. Tho germ causes
,,n1,;n, on the. intestinal walls and also
ory
~ Is believed that the common housc
ny frequently carries on It's body from
nI'ny places the germs of typhoid fever
ana deposits them on food In Kitchens
| and dining room tables.
The number OF cases in tho reris-
trhtion area OF the United States every
! year amounts TO about 1870. 900. and tho
uca ths amount to about $4,000. while
In the entire United States Il is esti-
| mated that there arc about three times
this number.
In twenty years GSsn-le0s) In the
English army In India ,hcro were 25.-
clio cases OF typhoid fever and 6,49i
oonths The proportion OF deaths va :
ries from 10 per cent. or less in light
cpidemics 10 30 per cent. in more severe
ones
Typhoid fever 4, scif-lmitcd dis
case. BY this is meant that If the
patient docs not dia during the prog
rcss of the disease tho body reacts
against the invading micro -organisms.
with the production of various anti
bodies known as agSlutinins. opsonins.
etc. and these limit the disease TO n
number OF weeks, after which the per
son RECEIVERS and the virus Ohio germ)
disappears from the body"
Special experiments were made by
the English army during the Bocr War
and also In the Japanese Russian War,
when this disease was very prevalent
and while satisfactory along certain
lines tho experts feel that they stu
have much to learn. T. II. MEG.