Abstract of report on the origin and spread of typhoid fever in U.S. military camps during the Spanish war of 1898 / by Walter Reed ... Victor C. Vaughan ... and Edward O. Shakespeare.

  • Surgeon General of the United States Army
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstract of report on the origin and spread of typhoid fever in U.S. military camps during the Spanish war of 1898 / by Walter Reed ... Victor C. Vaughan ... and Edward O. Shakespeare. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    robust than it is among the more delicate. We have already seen that man is most susceptible to this disease in early adult life, when he is supposed to be possessed of the greatest vitalit3^ The full- blooded, vigorous man is quite as likely to fall a victim of this dis- ease as his anaemic weak brother. So far as the influence of vocation is concerned there is no evidence that one occupation more than another creates a special disposition to this disease, except when the occupation brings the individual into more frequent and dangerous communication with the bacillus. Physicians, nurses, and laun- dresses show a large x)er cent of typhoid fever, but this is due to the fact that their work brings them into close contact with the stools of typhoid-fever patients. Other callings may place men so that they are more likelj to drink t}-phoid-infected water. It is for this reason that dock hands, stevedores, and sailors show a large percentage of typhoid fever. I^-FLUE^X'E OF EXPOSURE TO COLD. It is quite widely believed that exposure to cold increases suscepti- bility to t^-phoid fever. In most reported cases supposed to illustrate this point the fever follows so closely upon the exposure that the infection must have occurred previously. The probabilities are that in most of these cases the sujDposed exposure to cold was due to the chilly sensations likely to accompany the prodromal stage of this disease. INFLUENCE OF OTHER DISEASES. The influence of other diseases u]3on susceptibility to typhoid infec- tion is interesting, but is also one about which we must be slow to draw conclusions, because the evidence is likely to be misleading. Curschmann states that the acute infectious diseases, especiall}^ dur- ing the febrile stage, protect against infection with tj^phoid fever. He also has observed that during convalescence from other acute infectious diseases there seems to be partial and temporary immunity to tj-phoid fever. These opinions are based upon jjersonal observa- tions in several great epidemics, notabl}^ that of Hamburg from 1885 to 1888, in which 15,804 cases were reported. However, we must bear in mind that one sick with scarlet fever or some other acute infectious disease is not for the time being exposed to tyjihoid infection to the same extent that healthy people are. The Hamburg epidemic was due to an infected water supply, and it is more than likeh that indi- viduals suffering at that time from other acute infectious diseases drank proi)ortionately less unboiled water than others did. However, there may be truth in Curschmann's observations; we simply suggest caution in accepting them as conclusive. The fact that malaria and typhoid fever may simultaneously exist in the same individual will be discussed later; and Curschmann himself states that he has seen along the Rhiue malaria and tj-phoid fever prevalent in one i)lace at