Population of No. of Deaths England and Wales from Typhoid Year in Millions Fever 1871 22⅘ 12,709 1881 26 6,688 1891 29 5,200 1901 32⅗ 5,172 1911 36⅕ 2,430 1917 33⅗ (civilian) 977 The number of cases notified in England and Wales in 1911 was 13,852 in 1917 was 4,601 There was, it will be noted, a period of apparent cessation of decline in the typhoid mortality between 1891 and 1901, followed by a striking decline between 1901 and the present time. The late decline was due in large measure to the discovery of the relation between contaminated shell-fish and enteric fever, and, probably to a less extent, to the realisation of the importance of the small minority of cases of this disease, who continue after their recovery to spread infection. At the present time typhoid fever promises to become as rare in England as typhus fever or malaria; and with increased care in the protection of food, as well as of water supplies, and with the universal hospital treatment of the sick and observation of their bacterial condition on discharge, this anticipation bids fair to be realised. _Typhus Fever_ The history of typhus is similar to that of typhoid fever; and when Murchison in 1858 asserted its spontaneous generation under conditions of overcrowding and bad ventilation— Its great predisposing cause is destitution; while the exciting cause or specific poison is generated by overcrowding of human beings with deficient ventilation— he was expressing the considered conclusion of his period. Typhus Fever was not differentiated from enteric fever in the Registrar-General’s returns prior to 1869, but the course of events in later periods can be seen in the following statement: Typhus Fever, No. of Deaths in England Years and Wales Ten years, 1871-80 13,975 Eight years, 1903-10 210 Seven years, 1911-17 42 The cases in recent years were nearly all traceable to imported infection.