TYPHUS FEVER, a contagious fever, which occurs mainly in temperate and cold climates, and often rages as an epidemic. It is also known as "spotted," "epidemic," or "contagious" fever, and was formerly called "camp" or "gaol" fever from its prevalence in camps and prisons. It is most prevalent among fe males and young people, but the highest rate of mortality from the disease oc curs among adult males. The contagion is communicated through the air, and probably proceeds from the breath, which has a peculiar foul smell. It is not com municated from the clothes or excreta, and consequently, by properly isolating the patient, the spread of the fever may be prevented. The period of incubation is supposed to range from a few hours to several days.
The earliest symptoms are heaviness and listlessness, with a confusion of ideas, which afterward develops into de lirium; an eruption of round, dark, red dish-brown spots then makes its appear ance, the temperature is high, the pulse very rapid, and the patient suffers from extreme weakness. The condition of the bowels varies in different patients, for there may be either diarrhoea or consti pation. The duration of an uncompli cated case of typhus varies from 12 to 21 days. The greatest danger is usually during the second week of the illness, death seldom ensuing before the seventh day. The treatment of typhus consists
in placing the patient under the best pos sible hygienic conditions, keeping up the strength with beef tea, mutton broth, eggs, arrowroot, etc., and in alleviating the most prominent and distressing sym toms, such as relieving thirst, by the free administration of cooling drinks, con trolling sleeplessness, headache, and de lirium by small doses of opium, keeping the bowels open by mild laxatives, etc. Stimulants should not be given to chil dren, and many adults do well without them, but alcohol may be advantageously i used in the case of old persons, or where the patient has been accustomed to the free use of stimulants. When recovery takes place, it is generally very rapid, a great change in the condition of the pa tient often occurring in 24 or 48 hours. The only complication at all common is a form of pneumonia. Typhus was one of the scourges of the World War. It fol lowed invasion in Serbia in 1914-1915, and was prevalent in Russia and in southeastern and central Europe in 1919 1920, following pre-war conditions.