THE THEORY OF TYPHOID.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.'l
Sin,—I hope that you will allow me to call your attention to a most misleading paragraph in your otherwise excellent review of Professor Tyndall's last book, contained in your issue of the 4th inst.
The paper, with the paragraph marked, has just been sent to me by a most intelligent patient, of great scientific attainments, as justification of his belief, which I had strongly reprobated, that typhoid fever has no connection with bad drainage,—a belief so wrong in fact, and so mischievous in its application, that I hope your reviewer will disclaim it as his own, or that of any school of medical science. The paragraph, it is true, does not, upon careful reading, convey such a meaning to me, but it is certainly so worded that most readers would be unable to see that it is the origin, and not the spread, of typhoid fever which is there said to have no connection with bad drainage and sewer gas, a statement, by-the-by, which may be true, and appears so to me, but is not of unanimous acceptance by the leaders of
medical science.—I am, Sir, &c., E. H. L.
[We in no respect differ from our correspondent, unless it be that we feel (or he feels) more confidence in the results of recent investigations. In the paragraph referred to, we spoke (or he spoke) exclusively of the origin of typhoid fever, and not of the conditions that favour its diffusion, of which bad drainage is probably the most efficacious.—En. Spectator.]
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