Armies -- Medical and sanitary affairs; Epidemics -- History; Medicine, Military -- History; Military hygiene
There are two distinct forms of the disease—amoebic dysentery and
bacillary dysentery. The latter is caused by the _bacillus pyocyaneus_,
discovered independently by Stiga, Kruse, and Flexner. The disease used
to be common throughout Europe; at the present time it appears in
Central and Western Europe only in small epidemics, whereas in Eastern
Europe it spreads over large territories. It causes frequent, often
blood-coloured, defecations, accompanied by griping pains in the abdomen
and a distressing pressure (tenesmus). The disease lasts from one to one
and a half weeks, but for a long time after recovery the patient’s
alimentary canal is very sensitive to improper nourishment. The disease
is transmitted either by direct contact, since the evacuations of the
bowels contain large quantities of bacilli, or by infected water.
Amoebic dysentery, occurring in tropical countries (Southern Europe,
Egypt, Southern Asia, Central America, &c.), is much more dangerous; it
is caused by an amoeba, carefully studied by Kartulis, and very often
acquires a chronic character, sometimes causing abscess of the liver.
5. _Typhoid fever_ (called in England ‘enteric fever’, in France
‘fièvre typhoïde’, in Italy ‘febbre tifoidea’) in many wars has been
very widespread among the armies; for example, in the American Civil
War, in the Franco-German War (Metz), and in the Russo-Turkish War of
1877–8. The progress of the disease is well known; between the time of
infection and the outbreak of the sickness nine to eleven days usually
intervene, sometimes even as much as three weeks. In the first week
the temperature of the patient rises slowly, during the second week it
remains at about the same height, while in the third week it abates
considerably, becoming normal in the course of the fourth week. The
spleen enlarges a great deal, and in the second week small pale-red
spots (roseola), scarcely as large as a pea, appear on the buttocks
and especially on the belly. The patient’s bowel-movements, at first
normal, now becomes diarrhoeal, while certain psychic disorders also
manifest themselves, usually in the form of a heavy somnolence. In the
third week the patient’s life is threatened by complications in the
intestines—haemorrhage or perforation. Characteristic of the disease
are the anatomical changes of the small intestine—at first
enlargement, and later ulceration of Peyer’s patches. The infective
agent in the case of typhoid fever is a bacillus, identified by Gaffky
in 1882. It lodges in the alimentary canal, and is conveyed by food
that has been touched with hands to which matter containing the
bacillus has adhered, or else in contaminated water used for drinking
or other purposes. From eight to ten per cent of the patients die,
while a single recovery usually insures immunity against a second
attack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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