Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-02

Once again the American sanftarian
has registered q notable victory by de-
termining the cause of one of the world
dreaded diseases-typhus fever. Director
John F. Anderson and Surgeon Joseph
Goldberger of the United States hygienic
laboratory, which is branch of the
United States public health and marine
hospital service. have succeeded not only
in demonstrating that typhus fever is
identical with what has been known as
Brills disease, but also in proving that
a body parasite which flourishes only in
dirt and squalor is the principal. IL not
indeed the only, means of spreading the
disease.
The case which has been made out
against these pests, which have been
banished to the slums. is almost as con-
fever and the malarial mosquitoes, and
awaits only a long course Of expert
mentation to make it as complete For
many years the physicians of the world
have been coming nearer and nearer to
guessing the true cause of typhus, and
the medical literature on the subject is
sued In recent years has described well
the surroundings which are necessary to
the spread Of typhus, and they are prac-
tically those under which the body para
sites OF the genus pediculus flourish.
Literature of earlier years on the subject
or typhus. In view of the recent discov-
cries. is as far wide of the mark as was
the literature of yellow fever written q
score of years ago.
This discovery adds one more to the
class of insects which are the medium of
spreading danger
Other Diseases May GUS diseases. Just as
Be the mesaa ,nr v is
fever and malaria. SO the flea is RESPONSE
BILE for bubonic plague, and pedeculidae
for typhus. How much further this line
of investigation will carry the medical
world none of it's authorities can predict,
but the possibility of discovering other
diseases which are almost or quite wholly
insect-borne is freely conceded.
Contrary to general belief, typhus fever
exists in the slums of many cities, nota-
bly, in New York. For years patients
have been going to the hospitals on the
East Side in New York whose cases were
diagnosed as typhoid fever. In 1893 DR..
Nathan E. Brill of that city reported
seventeen cases of disease which clinic
ally resembled typhoid, but which was
without what is medically known as the
WHO'LL TedCIlOn. he StuQleO tueSe cases
carefully, and gave the points of differ
ence between this group of cases and the
usual types Of typhoid. In 1910 he re-
ported on 221 cases in an East Side hos
pital. which he had observed in a period
of thirteen years.
DR.. Brill described the disease as of un-
known origin and unknown pathology.
characterized by a short period Of incu-
baton. usually four or five days, followed
by period of intense headache and con-
tinuous fever. lasting about two weeks.
after which it disappears quickly. Later
he observed thirty-four cases in the same
hospital, all in a single year. 1910. This
report sAncluded one case which proved
fatal, and upon which an autopsy was
performed. From material obtained from
this autopsy DIR. Brill inoculated three
monkeys, each by different method.
None Of the animals contracted the dis
ease. Later he inoculated two more with
blood obtained from patients in the hos
pital. and they went scot free. His final
conclusion was that in the absence of
better proof than he possessed the disease
uas 6irNr,n from tynhus. In 1911 DR..
e. A. Friedman declared it his belief that
Brills disease was the same as moderate
cases Of typhus.
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