Typhus fever

Abstract

That typhus fever is much more commonly a disease of children than has been Usually supposed, but that on the other hand the disease is usually much modified and much milder in children.That the contagiousness of the disease under modern sanitary conditions is probably less than that of the other acute exanthemata.That nothing is yet definitely known of the causal organism of typhus: that either the blood is sterile or our present methods of staining and culture are unsuitable for the detection and growth of the organism.That leucocytosis is invariably present in typhus and that the character of the leucocytosis may in doubtful cases give some indication of the disease.That the Widal reaction is negative in typhus fever and that this test is still of great importance in the diagnosis between typhus and typhoid.