SMALL-POX.

As a matter of fact Chicken-pox is of congeneric origin with small-pox, with which, in a very much milder degree, it has various features in common.  But small-pox itself is engendered of foul and insanitary conditions of life, impure blood and bad and insufficient nourishment and these, together with its risk under unscientific conditions and in times past of facial disfigurement, have made its name more repugnant to the layman than perhaps any other form of disease.  All that need be said about it here, however, is that it is largely a terror of the past and that the sure preventative against it always, and the one reliable anti-toxin against contagion, under all circumstances, is good healthy blood and hygienic-dietetic living.

Those readers who may desire a minute description of this form of disease will find the same in chapt:  XII of my greater work “Regeneration.”

TYPHOID FEVER OR TYPHUS ABDOMINALIS.

(A) General Description.

This description of fever is usually termed typhus or nerve fever.  It characterizes all forms of typhoid disease of which the following features constitute the prominent symptoms.

To a peculiar degree, chiefly young and strong individuals of from 15 to 30 years of age are attacked by this disease, while those in early youth and of more advanced years are much less subject to the same.

It is a complaint very dangerous to those who eat and drink to excess and without discretion.  Strong excitement of the mind, such as a shock or great anguish, will undoubtedly favor the appearance of typhus.  The seasons too have considerable influence upon it, most cases occurring during the Autumn months—­from August to November.

It has been previously indicated to what extent the study of the hygienic conditions of life will assist in the discovery of the real causes of so-called contagious disease.  One instance may show the enormous influence of dietetic movements on the outbreak of great epidemics.

It is reported in the “Journal of the Sanitary Institute,” London, that the English Seaside Resort Brighton, in the period from July, 1893, to August, 1896, 238 cases of abdominal typhus were observed,—­about equally divided for the different years.  In 56 cases the typhus was caused by the eating of oysters (36 cases) or clams (20 cases).  There was evidence that the water from which these oysters and clams were taken was badly polluted by the excrement of several thousand people, brought through sewers to the place were the shell-fish had been gathered.  It was very characteristic in a number of cases that only one of a number of persons, who were otherwise living under equal conditions, fell ill with typhus, a short while after having eaten some of the shell-fish.  No other points essential to the spreading of this