Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1884 — The Germs of Fever. [ARTICLE]

The Germs of Fever.

I have recently had the opportunity of learning, on the spot, the full particulars of a case in which four members of one household were last year attacked with typhoid fever one of them narrowly escaping with her lifeunder circumstances which left no doubt in the mind of the very accomplished physician who had charge of the patients that the malady originated in the opening of an old cess-pool belonging to a neighboring then in course of demolition. The house in which the outbreak took place is large and airy, and stands by itself in a most salubrious situation. The most careful examination, failed to disclose aay de- ’ feci either fn‘ its drainugfe Of-itß water supply; there was no typhoid in the neighborhood; and the milk supply was unexceptionable. But, the neighboring hotise being old, and having been occupied by a school, its removal had been determined on to make way for a house of higher class; and, as the offensive odor emanating from the uncovered cess-pool was at once perceived in the next garden, and the outbreak of typhoid followed at the usual interval, the case seems one which admits of no reasonable question. On the whole, then, the conclusion seems clear, that while the breeding ground of ordinary malarious germs is the earth alone, and the breeding ground of the ordinary exanthemata is the human body alone, there is an,intermediate class of pestilential diseases —including cholera, typhoid, and probably yellow fever —in which (as Mr. Simon tersely expressed it) “certain microphytes are capable of thriving equally, though perhaps in different forms, either within or without the animal body ; now fructifying in . soil or waters of appropriating quality, and now the self-multiplying contagium of a bodily disease.”-— Dr. B. W. Carpenter, in the Nineteenth Century. 4- —* Love makes labor light and suffering sweet The secret of willing, cheerful, joyful service can be discovered in the sw’eet reply of a little girl found busy at the ironing-table smoothing the towels and stockings. “Isn’t that hard work for the little arms?” was asked. A look like sunshine came into her face as she glanced toward her mother, who was rocking the baby. “It isn’t hard work when I do it for mamma,” she said, softly. That’s the secret. Self-control is promoted by humility. Pride is a fruitful source of uneasiness. It keeps the mind in disquiet Humility is the antidote to this evil.— Sigourney. U y