From a most careful critical study of the history of fever generally, including chemi cal and microscopical examination of the excretions, Dr. Parkes arrives at the conclu sion. that the general treatment qf fever, including typhus and typhoid fevers, may be summed up "as being a combination of measures to reduce excessive heat, to insure proper excretion, and to act on the semi-paralyzed nerves." The special indications for the treat ment of typhus are: 1. To neutralize the poison, and to correct the morbid state of the blood. Hydrochloric aci.1 is strongly recommended for this purpose; it may be given to the extent of a fluid ounce of the dilute acid daily, mixed with a quart of barley water sweetened with syrup of ginger, and flavored with lemon-peel. 2. To eliminate the poison and the products of the destructive metamorphosis of tissue. For this pur pose, alkaline salts may be prescribed to act on the kidneys and skin, and purgatives are often useful. 8. To reduce the temperature. 4. To sustain the vital powers,and to obviate the tendency to death; nourishment in the form of milk and water, coffee, broth, beef-tea, etc., must be administered at least once in every three or tour hours, after the fourth day of fever, and alcoholic stimulants are usually serviceable about the seventh or eighth day. Great discrimination is required in prescribing them, and we are mainly indebted to the Dublin school—to Graves and Stokes—for pointing out the importance of the car diac and radial pulses as guides for the use of alcohol in fevers. When the cardiac impulse becomes weak, and when the first sound of the heart is impaired or absent, stimulants should be freely given; and an irregular, intermitting, abnormally slow, or imperceptible pulse affords a similar indication. 5. To relieve the distressing symp toms, such as the headache, sleeplessness, and delirium; and 6. To avert and subdue local complications.
In typhoid fever the chief indications of treatment are (1) to reduce the temperature, and subdue any vascular excitement that is present in excess; (2) to restrain excessive diarrhea for which purpose milk and lime-water in equal parts may be taken as a drink. The discharge ought act to be altcgether checked, and prof. Gairdner prefers giving saline laxatives to astringents, and at the same time recommends that the lower bowel should be unloaded by warm-water injections, to which a little asafetida or aniseed is added. In cases in which it is doubtful whether to check or encourage diarrhea, the rhysician will generally be on the safer side if he discourages the action of the bowels. (2) 'restimulate the nervous system by proper food, and possibly by stimulants; (4) to innintain the free action of the kidneys, winch is best effected by the administration of small doses of the alkaline carbonates, or of cream of tartar; (5) to influence the elimina tion of morbid matter from the affected intestinal glands. For this purpoSe, 1 or 2 graths of calomel should be given twice a clay till about the 10th day, but not later. Special symptoms, such as great inflation of the abdomen (known as meteorism), hemorrhage from the intestines, etc., must be treated by the ordinary rules. Probably the best single remedy for this form of hemorrhage is oil of turpentine in doses of from 5 to 20 drops every hour or two. It is best administered in the form of an emulsion with gum amble, white sugar, nad water. The diet is a subject of the utmost importance from the beginning of the disease till complete recovery ensues. Front the various forms of farinaceous food, such as arrow-root, rice, sago, tapioca, bread, etc., from eggs beaten into custard, and milk with or without lime-water (or, preferably, effervescing Carrara water), an abundant, bland, and nourishing dietary can be selected. All animal food, excepting eggs and milk, must be rigidly prohibited. Even beef tea and mild broths have often been found to exert a special irritant action on the overcharged glands of the ileum. During the period of convalescctice, no meat should be allowed till at least a
week has elapsed after all the febrile symptoms have vanished, and the only admissible means of opening the bowels are by castor oil or simple enemata.
Both typhus and typhoid fever have beet] described under various names. Typhus has been popularly known as the jail fever, hospital fever, putrid fever, brain fever; bilious fever, spotted fever, camp fever, etc.; while from the peculiar lesions winch are associated with it, the terms enteric fever, and intestinal fever, have been suggested as appropriate synonyms for typhoid. Its latest name, for which Dr. Murchison is respon sible, is pythogenetie fever, or fever born of putrescence. If the term intestinal fever, suggested by Dr. W. Budd, were adopted, much confusion would be prevented.* Had our space permitted, we should have given a brief historical sketch of the prin• cipal epidemics of typhus fever. To confine ourselves to the present it may be mentioned, that during its first 15 years the ravages of typhus in the armies of Napoleon, and among the population of the countries which were the seat of war, were perfectly appalling. In May, 1812, the Bavarian army serving with the French numbered 28,000 men; in 1813, the number was reduced to 2,250. the great destroyer being typhus. In Mayence alone. of 60,000 French troops composing the garrison in 1813-14, there died of typhus alone, in six months, 25,000 men. During the spring of 1856, more than 17,000 men of the French army in the Crimea perished from this disease in less than three months. According to Parkes, typhus fever occupies the fourth place among the causes which have produced loss of life in the British army, the three more potent causes being (1) a defective commissariat; (2) undertaking military operations in an unhealthy site, and with an unhealthy season impending; and (3) exposure to cold, with insufficient clothing and food. The present article, comparatively long as it is, contains but a very meager outline sketch of the history and treatment of two of the most important diseases affecting the human body.—For further details, the reader is referred to Aitken's Science and Practice of 3d ed., vol. i. pp. 374-474, and to Dr. Murchison's Treatise on the Continued Fevers of Great Britain (1803).
TYR is the old Norse name of a god, who, however, did not belong exclusively to the northern mythology, but was common also to the German, being called in old High German Ziu or Zia, and in Ang.-Sax. Tie. He was the son of Odin, and was the god of war and of fame, which idea is expressed in old Norse by the word tyr; and when the Romans and Greeks speak of a Mars or an Ares among the Germans, it is Tyr that is meant. According to the Edda, he was single-handed. When the Asa-gods persuaded the wolf Fenrir to allow himself to be bound with the bandage Gleipnir, Tyr put his right hand in the wolf's mouth, as a pledge that he would be loosened; and when the gods refused to release him, the wolf bit off Tyr's hand to the wrist, which was called, in consequence, uljtithr, or the wolf's joint. In the twilight-battle of the gods, he meets his death at the same time with his enemy, the monster dog, Garmr. The old Norse Runic character j bore the name of the god. The third day of the week, too, the Dies Martis of the Romans, is called after him, in old Norse, Tyrsdafi•; Tiresday