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.
- Walter Reed
- Date:
- 1900
Licence: In copyright
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.
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![that llie deeper layers of the soil eoiilained putrefactive material in 'which the typhoid-fevei* poison undei'Koes a ripeniii}^ process, and that the ripened germ ]>asses from the soil into the air and is inhaled by susceptible persons. When the level of the ground water is high, the putrefying matei-ial in which the ripening proce.ss is supposed to be going on is covered 1\y the water and its escape into the air is prevented, while a fall in the ground water leaves the putref\'ing substances uncovered and the poison passes into the air. It will be seen from these statements that Pettenkofei- believes that the spe- cific j3oison must be present, but that this undergoes in the soil changes by means of which its virulence is augmented. If this the- ory be true, it should hold good for other cities as well as for Munich, and numerous investigators have found that elsewhere this suppo.sed relation between ground water and the prevalence of typhoid fever is by no means constant. Indeed, there are so many e.xceptions to Pettenkofer’s rule concerning this relationship between the level of ground water and the i3i’evalence of typhoid fever that this theory must be abandoned as an explanation of the origin of epidemics of typhoid fever. There is no reason for believing that in the ordinary movements of the air from the pores in the ground to the atmo- sphere the velocity is suflBcient to carry dust laden with bacilli. Certainty, such a transference of the bacillus from the deeper layers of the soil to the atmosphere in the form of dust must be of most exceptional occurrence, if it ever haj)pens. It might be stated in this connection that some sanitarians accept that part of Pettenkofer’s theory which provides for the ripening of the i)oison in the soil, but believe that the I’iijened and highly virulent bacillus finds its way into the drinking water and does not infect through the air. (d) The dissemination of typhoid fever through drinking water. There can be but little doubt that in civil life the great epidemics of typhoid fever are generalty caused bj the specific contamination of drinking water. The danger in infected water was recognized long before the diseoveiy of the specific bacillus and, indeed, epidemics had been unquestionably ti’aced to contaminated water supplies. We have already seen that this micro-organism may live and multiply in water. The most frequent contamination of drinking water with typhoid material results from the introduction into the water of the feces or urine of some infected person. After this has happened, the rapid multiplication of the organism in water iDcrmits the speedy infec- tion of a large volume. Moreover, in flowing water the specific bacil- lus maj^ be carried considerable distances. Variations in the tempera- ture of this medium do not affect the virulence of the germ. It may be frozen in ice and remain in this condition quite indefinitely with- out any loss in potency, and it is equally unaffected by alternate freezing and thawing. The specific contamination of drinking water may be responsible for isolated cases and for both small and large](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28063223_0248.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
